BASEBALL DAILY REPORT : DODGERS : Hershiser Wins All the Battles

With slugger Orel Hershiser facing the St. Louis Cardinals’ Allen Watson Sunday, the game had a chance to be a pitchers’ hitting duel. Hershiser’s .424 batting average puts him on a pace to break the major league record for average by a pitcher, held by John Bentley, who batted .406 in 1923.

At the New York Institute of Technology, Watson was ranked fifth in the nation among college hitters his senior year and he came into Sunday’s game hitting .294 (five for 17, with two doubles).

In two at-bats against Watson, Hershiser doubled, scoring a run and driving in one. Watson was hitless in two at-bats. His chance for a hit came on a high bouncer back to the mound in the fifth inning, but Hershiser snagged it.

“When he came up to bat, everybody was saying that he’s a good hitter, so I started out by nibbling the corners and I got behind 3-and-0,” Hershiser said. “So I said, forget it, and I threw three pitches down the middle after that.”

Hershiser’s 25 hits are the most for a Dodger pitcher since Don Drysdale had 39 in 1965. He also has five runs batted in, seven sacrifice hits and has struck out only five times in 59 at-bats.

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Mike Piazza set the Dodger franchise rookie record for home runs when he hit his 26th of the season in the fifth inning. Del Bissonette hit 25 in 1928 for Brooklyn. Piazza later hit his 27th. . . . Fred Claire, Dodger vice president, says he has had no communication with Darren Dreifort since Wednesday. Dreifort, the Dodgers’ top draft choice, is trying to decide whether to accept the Dodgers’ signing bonus offer of $1.3 million or go back to Wichita State for his senior year. . . . Ray Lankford left the game in the fourth inning because of a jammed shoulder, caused when he hit the center-field wall to rob Cory Snyder. . . . Dave Hansen is still sidelined because of a virus.