Hershiser Is the Winner, Even If Dodgers Aren’t : Baseball: Pitcher throws a shutout for 6 1/3 innings, but Cardinals rally twice for 3-2 victory in 11.

In Orel Hershiser’s second comeback start Tuesday, he happily discovered that when doctors operated on his shoulder 13 months ago, they didn’t reconstruct everything .

Left intact were tiny bits of 1988.

This time there were no tears; only fastballs, futile swings and fond memories as Hershiser held the St. Louis Cardinals to two singles in 6 1/3 shutout innings in the Dodgers’ 3-2 loss in 11 innings.

The game, which Hershiser began by striking out Bernard Gilkey on three pitches, ended with the Cardinals swarming the field and Hershiser standing in the shower.

Milt Thompson hit a game-winning, two-run triple to left field against Jim Gott after Mike Sharperson’s bases-loaded single had given the Dodgers the lead in the top of the 11th.

But Hershiser, like everyone here, understood the identity of Tuesday’s real winner. Just so nobody would forget, the 26,211 fans at Busch Stadium gave Hershiser a standing ovation when he left the field in the seventh inning after feeling a tightening in his right hamstring.

“I am starting to get a presence on the mound again,” Hershiser said, unable to stifle a small smile in the Dodgers’ hushed clubhouse. “I am not ready to put the Good Housekeeping Seal on this outing, I’m still having anxiety . . . but tonight felt very, very good.”

That presence featured five strikeouts and only five balls that were hit out of the infield from the 23 batters he faced. He threw 83 pitches, 48 strikes, including 17 strikes batters watched.

“Tonight I was able to get ahead of hitters, and when you do that, you can freeze people, get them to look like they don’t know what’s coming,” Hershiser said. “But my biggest difference tonight was location.”

Indeed, he began the night as a shaky pitcher who had given up four runs in four innings in his first comeback start last week. In a matter of a couple of hours, he moved way uptown.

“When he was hitting his pitches, that he was the same pitcher he has always been,” catcher Mike Scioscia said. “No question.”

Hershiser gave up a one-out single to Ozzie Smith in the first inning, but picked him off.

Hershiser then gave up a leadoff single by Pedro Guerrero in the second, and proceeded to walk two hitters to load the bases. But on a two-out, full- count fastball, he struck out pitcher Jose DeLeon to end the inning, and he was never in trouble again.

At one stretch he retired 11 consecutive batters. When he left the game with one out in the seventh, he had retired his last three hitters.

And guess who is working on a 9 1/3-inning consecutive scoreless streak?

In fact, guess which Dodger hitter has yet to make an out in 1990? Hershiser singled to right field in the first inning and blooped a double off the glove of left fielder Bernard Gilkey in the fifth inning to make him three for three this season with two doubles.

He paid for that second hit, however, when his hamstring tightened after he rushed around first and sprinted into second when Gilkey lost the ball. The tightening is considered just an irritation, and afterward Hershiser claimed he could run outside and sprint around the field right that minute.

“I might look like I am having fun out there, but I still have some anxiety,” Hershiser said. “I’m am going to have to go through three or four more outings before I can start critiquing myself like a veteran.”

He hopes that in one of those outings he can finally get his first comeback victory, which would also be his 100th career win.

The Dodgers gave Hershiser a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning against DeLeon on singles by Chris Gwynn, Kal Daniels and Lenny Harris.

But in the ninth inning, reliever Jay Howell suffered a second consecutive late-inning breakdown. He allowed a leadoff single to Ray Lankford. With Gary Carter catching, Lankford stole second base, the first of two important late- inning steals by him.

Lankford went to third on a single by Todd Zeile, then beat Jose Gonzalez’s throw to score on a fly ball by Thompson.

After Sharperson’s first hit since April 20 gave the Dodgers the lead in the top of the 11th--Sharperson just came off the disabled list--Gott gave it back. After Lankford singled and stole second, Gott got two outs and went 1-and-2 to Zeile. But Gott walked him, then gave up Thompson’s two-run triple to left field, just off the glove of Stan Javier.