Their Brush With History Is Special to the Losers

There was an artistry to it all, a picture of perfection, which comes so seldom in life that even the losing team could marvel as it was being painted.

Even Chris Gwynn, who acknowledged his place in history. “I guess I’ll be on the news all night,” he said.

Yeah, and also on a game show 20 years from now. Topic: sports. Question: who made the last out in Dennis Martinez’s perfect-game against the Dodgers, July 28, 1991?

Answer: Gwynn, on a 1-and-1 pitch, Martinez’s 95th, a long fly ball--itself an accomplishment on this day--to Marquis Grissom in center field. It was 3:22 p.m., and a row of Dodgers sat in the dugout, watching silently as Martinez was mobbed by his Montreal Expo teammates.

“I don’t care what anybody says, you have to take your hat off to him,” said Brett Butler, who was the first of Martinez’s five strikeout victims.

“He pitched himself a hell of a game, but so did our guy,” said Manager Tom Lasorda, who tends to save rave reviews in Los Angeles for people wearing white uniforms.

“He was unbelievable,” said Dodger starter Mike Morgan, who has seen more than enough of Martinez. Morgan has lost six of 15 decisions this season.

“One was a 1-0 game to him when (Delino) DeShields hit a home run in the ninth inning,” Morgan said. “Another was today. And I had a no-decision against him, coming out when I hurt my foot. Today I get beat, 2-0, on two unearned runs and a perfect game.”

It is the last time the Dodgers will play the Expos and see Martinez this season, barring an unforeseen trade.

Said Butler, who also grounded out in the fourth inning and popped out in the seventh: “I know I faced him when I was in San Francisco and here, and I don’t know how he ever loses.”

The key, said Gwynn, is keeping hitters off-balance: throwing breaking balls and changeups when ahead in the count.

The antidote, said Butler, is a mistake: “You look for him to hang a curveball or something like that. Then you can beat him.

“But he didn’t make one today.”

Butler’s strength is a fastball, he said, and he got a few from Martinez. “But every one was a little outside, a little low--nothing to hit.’

Instead, there were nibbles, the sign a pitcher is in control. “You could see it early,” Butler said. “I was 1 and 2 in the first inning, and he struck me out on a pitch that was close.

“I was 3 and 2 (in the fourth inning) and he threw one away.”

As the game wound along, the intensity increased with each borderline pitch. Morgan and Martinez matched perfection through five innings. With intensity comes pressure, for everybody.

“I was aware of a no-hitter, but I wasn’t aware of a perfect game,” said plate umpire Larry Poncino, who had never called either in the big leagues. “I tried not to (get involved in the buildup), but I also wanted to slow down a little and make sure of the call.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” he said, waiting for Martinez to come by the umpires’ clubhouse to sign a copy of the lineup card for posterity.

It’s been at least twice in Lasorda’s lifetime, the first being the Reds’ Tom Browning at Cincinnati on Sept. 16, 1988.

To Lasorda, the Dodgers could have been playing in a repeat of Friday’s 1-0 victory in 10 innings over Mark Gardner, who had pitched no-hit ball through nine innings.

“He had (Larry) Walker struck out” with two out in the seventh inning, Lasorda said. Instead, Morgan’s 2-and-2 pitch was called a ball, and Walker then tripled to right-center field to score Dave Martinez.

“It was a fastball on the outside corner,” Morgan said. “I felt like I had him, and then I hung one.”

“The ball was low,” Poncino said. “Tommy gave me some stuff, but the ball was low.”

And the Dodgers fell behind, 2-0, when Alfredo Griffin made an error on Ron Hassey’s ground ball, Walker scoring. And there was no relief in sight. Martinez was that good.

When Gwynn became the 27th Dodger to bat, there was little he could do but hope. “Anybody from the stands and bench could have seen he had it all,” Gwynn said. “The only thing I can try to do in that situation is see the ball.”

After taking a ball, he found an outside pitch to his liking and drove it past third base, barely foul. “It was an outside fastball, and he was running it away from everybody,” Gwynn said.

Then came the pitch for history, another fastball. “There’s a (special) feeling, being involved in something like that,” he said.