BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : DODGERS : Hershiser Gets Even in the End

Dodger starter Orel Hershiser had a little no-hitter going--and he also had a premonition about Fernando Valenzuela.

“I was sitting in the dugout after the second inning and I realized I had a no-hitter going and that Fernando was coming up in the third,” Hershiser said. “And I just knew that he was going to get the first hit off of me, and the ballpark would go wild.”

Which is exactly what part-time Mexican League designated hitter Valenzuela did during Sunday’s game, reaching for an outside pitch and lining it hard to center field.

Hershiser feigned disgust, stared over at Valenzuela, and teasingly tossed the ball over to the Philadelphia Phillie dugout.

“He gave me a little smirk, a little smile, and I threw the ball over there jokingly, like he’d want to keep his first hit off of me,” Hershiser said. “Of course, he’s not sentimental about any of that stuff.”

He regained his dignity in the fifth, hitting a Valenzuela delivery to left field for a single.

“The most important thing that happened is we both got hits,” Hershiser said with a smile, “and I won’t have to go the rest of my life in those old-timer games having to hear that he got a hit off of me and I didn’t get a hit off of him.”