BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAN : Hershiser Impresses Dodgers From Afar

Pitching on three days’ rest and in a chilling wind, Orel Hershiser won again Sunday night. He’s 19-6 as a member of the Cleveland Indians this year and has a 7-0 career record in the postseason.

With Hershiser providing the foundation by restricting the Seattle Mariners to one earned run in six innings, the Indians won a battle of missed opportunities, 3-2.

They lead the American League’s best-of-seven championship series by that same count, with Seattle’s survival resting with Randy Johnson on Tuesday night in the Kingdome, or as Hershiser said:

“Going back to the Noisedome, this was a huge win.”

He also labeled it “as satisfying a win as I’ve had, considering the weather, the three days’ rest, and the status of the series.”

A crowd of 43,607 watched at Jacobs Field, where wind gusts reached 30 m.p.h. and the temperature dipped to the low 40s.

From the comfort of his Pasadena living room, Fred Claire, the Dodger vice president, said:

“Watching Orel, it was like he was still pitching for the Dodgers. I couldn’t be prouder and I couldn’t be happier for him.

“There’s few better competitors and there’s few people who have worked harder to bring his career back to this level.”

Does he regret that Hershiser isn’t still pitching for the Dodgers?

“You can always look back, but a lot of clubs were faced with difficult economic decisions putting a market value on veteran players when the strike ended,” Claire said. “Orel’s view was different than ours, but we understood each other’s position.

“How many prominent veteran players can leave a club after a long-term relationship and have that relationship remain as strong as ever, which our relationship with Orel does?’

In addition, Claire said, Hershiser’s departure opened the door for the arrival and emergence of Hideo Nomo and Ismael Valdes. Hershiser had gone 28-35 in the three years after his 1990 shoulder reconstruction, making it impossible to predict he would resurrect his pre-surgery form to the current extent.

“I don’t think even Orel could have predicted that, or he wouldn’t have signed the type contract he did with the Indians,” Claire said.

After making $3 million a year in a multiyear deal with the Dodgers, Hershiser is receiving $1.45 million with the Indians, who have an option at a bargain $1.55 million for 1996.

“No question about it,” Cleveland General Manager John Hart said when asked Sunday night if the Indians will pick up that option. “It’s automatic, the way he’s pitched.”

The Mariners, batting .193 after hitting .315 in their five-game victory over the New York Yankees in the division series, juggled their lineup against Hershiser to no avail. He gave up five hits in six innings, striking out eight, a club record for the postseason. If Albert Belle hadn’t butchered two fly balls in left field, it would have been a scoreless stint.

As it is, Hershiser has a 1.47 ERA for 79 1/3 postseason innings. His seven consecutive victories equal Bob Gibson’s postseason record, and at 7-0 he eclipsed Lefty Gomez’s record (6-0) for the most wins by an undefeated pitcher in the postseason.

Hershiser said he is flattered by the company, but there is no way to compare his velocity and movement to that of Gibson.

However, at one point in this game he struck out Jay Buhner, Tino Martinez and Doug Strange on nine consecutive strikes and threw 17 in a row overall.

“Some guys are effectively wild. I guess I was effectively in control,” he said, adding that he profited from years of pitching in the wind of Candlestick Park because “tonight’s conditions were very similar and nearly impossible.”

He said, however, that he felt strong and capable of going out for another inning, but “they felt I had done enough on the short rest and wanted to turn it over to the bullpen.”

The pivotal moment came in the seventh when southpaw specialist Paul Assenmacher struck out Ken Griffey Jr. and Buhner with runners at first and third.

“He has one of the best breaking balls in the business and the savvy to know when to use his fastball,” Hershiser said of Assenmacher, 34, who has made more appearances than any pitcher in baseball over the last five years but seldom faces more than one or two batters.

“He gets to watch more baseball and do less than just about any pitcher I know,” Hershiser said with a smile. “We have this running joke when he comes back into the dugout. We like to ask him if he’s tired. Of course, those one or two outs are always among the biggest outs of the game.

“Tonight, he struck out one of the best hitters in baseball and one of the hottest.

“When he got the two strikes on Buhner, I made the mistake of announcing I’d kiss him if he struck him out. I owe him one.”

Now 2-0 in this series, Hershiser might not be through. He could come back in relief on two days’ rest in Game 7, if it goes that far.

This was only the second time he has started on three days’ rest since the surgery. Hershiser said he is blessed and humbled by his postseason success and his comeback from that career-threatening injury, but feels now too much is being made of it, that it is being way over-analyzed.

“I’m not going to say I’m tired of it, but I’m basically just a human being trying to do his best,” he said. “I almost lost it, but I got it back with God’s help and hard work.”

The final piece may have evolved while the players were on strike. His velocity improved three to five m.p.h., he believes, but the Dodgers didn’t see that development because he was deprived of working out at Dodger Stadium by the work stoppage, and was left to do most of his throwing against a brick wall. Thus, he is wearing Indian red instead of Dodger blue, and Fred Claire is watching via television.