NL’s Soggy Bats Produce 2 Hits as AL Wins, 2-0

On a traditional Wrigley Field night of wet ivy and stiff winds Tuesday, baseball’s 61st All-Star game produced a new murderers’ row.

Their names are Bob Welch, Dave Stieb, Bret Saberhagen, Bobby Thigpen, Chuck Finley and Dennis Eckersley. They are American League pitchers who murdered the National League’s best bats, giving up only two hits in leading the AL to a 2-0 victory before 39,071.

It was the fewest hits by one team in All-Star game history, and only the sixth shutout.

In a game twice delayed by rain for a total of 1 hour 23 minutes, the biggest pause occurred in the National League offense. Only four batters reached base. At one point, 16 consecutive batters were retired. The NL struck out six times and hit only 10 balls out of the infield, including the two hits.

San Francisco’s Will Clark blooped a two-out single up the middle against Oakland’s Welch in the first inning, and Philadelphia’s Lenny Dykstra hit a line-drive single off Oakland’s Eckersley to lead off the ninth. In between, only walks to San Diego’s Tony Gwynn and Pittsburgh’s Barry Bonds marred the AL performance.

The AL got only seven hits against an All-Star game record nine NL pitchers, but they needed only one, a two-run double by Texas’ Julio Franco after a 1:08 rain delay in the seventh inning. Franco was voted the game’s most valuable player.

“We are coming into the All-Star game with a little different attitude these days,” said Kansas City’s Saberhagen, who was the winning pitcher with two perfect innings.

“We have all heard how the National League is a better league, so we are coming in here to win games.

“And we have some good pitchers. Mike Boddicker isn’t here, and Roger Clemens didn’t even pitch. So we have even better than we showed tonight.”

This was the AL’s third consecutive All-Star victory, and fourth in the last five games. Overall they still trail in the series, 37-23-1.

Citing the rain and the 16-m.p.h. winds blowing in from Lake Michigan, the NL hitters came up with some All-Star excuses.

“Hitting was difficult tonight not just because of the rain, but also because you don’t know the pitchers and you see so many different guys coming in and out,” said San Francisco’s Clark, who followed his single with two groundouts. “I wish we could have had a few (innings) more.”

Said Giant teammate Kevin Mitchell: “I definitely think the pitchers had an advantage in the All-Star game. Not only are you facing a guy who you’ve never been before, but he knows that he’s only going to have to be out there for an inning or two.”

Mitchell, who went hitless in two at-bats, was struck out by AL starter Welch to end the first inning with Clark on first. The Chicago Cubs’ Ryne Sandberg stranded pinch-runner Barry Larkin of Cincinnati on second base by grounding out to third against Toronto’s Stieb in the third.

In the ninth, Eckersley kept Dykstra on first base by retiring San Diego’s Roberto Alomar on a fly ball to center, striking out San Francisco’s Matt Williams looking and retiring Tim Wallach on a foul pop to first base.

With such pitching, the AL needed only one productive inning, which lasted more than an hour because of the rain.

With showers growing heavier, the AL seventh began with Cleveland’s Sandy Alomar Jr. sliding across first base to beat out a grounder to shortstop against San Francisco relief pitcher and loser Jeff Brantley. The Angels’ Lance Parrish then followed with a perfect hit-and-run ground single to right field.

Brantley was preparing to face Franco when play finally was stopped. It was the game’s second delay; the opening pitch was 15 minutes late because of the rain. This was only the fourth All-Star game to be affected by rain.

During the seventh-inning break, Brantley developed a stiff shoulder and, upon resumption of play, he was replaced by Cincinnati’s Rob Dibble. Franco fell behind 0-and-2 to the hard-throwing Dibble before hitting a fastball into the right-center-field gap for a double, scoring Alomar and Parrish, who stumbled down the third base line but still crossed the plate without sliding.

“I knew he was going to throw the fastball because he had been warming up for 20 minutes, and I was stiff,” Franco said. “I was looking at him warming up and saw that he had a lot of body motion. Everybody said he threw hard, so I just tried to get it to right field. “

The inning ended with one of the game’s few classic confrontations. It occurred after Franco took third on a grounder by the Chicago White Sox’s Ozzie Guillen and Toronto’s Kelly Gruber walked and stole second.

Oakland’s Jose Canseco then hit a fly ball to right fielder Darryl Strawberry. As Strawberry caught the ball, Franco tagged third base and raced for home. Strawberry’s throw to Dodger catcher Mike Scioscia reached him on a line and Scioscia, blocking the plate as always, tagged out Franco for the double play.

Another NL hero was Dodger pitcher Ramon Martinez, who had an eventful third inning, which he completed by retiring Canseco on a grounder with runners on first and second.

Martinez replaced starter Jack Armstrong of Cincinnati in the third. Armstrong gave up one hit in two innings, after becoming the first pitcher to start an All-Star game in his first full major league season since the Dodgers’ Fernando Valenzuela in 1981.

With one out in the third and New York Yankee Steve Sax on second after a walk and a stolen base, Martinez struck out Oakland’s Rickey Henderson.

Up stepped Boston’s Wade Boggs, who was intentionally walked. Why? So Martinez could face Canseco.

“I know Canseco is a home-run hitter, but I know Boggs has a better chance of driving in a run in that situation,” National League Manager Roger Craig said. “I’m trying to win a game.”

His strategy worked as Canseco grounded out meekly to Sandberg.