Park Is Strong for Five, 5-0

The zeroes keep going up on the scoreboard for the Fl-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-rida Marlins, nine more of them Thursday night courtesy of Chan Ho Park and the Dodgers.

In the longest outing of his major league career, Park was strong in his first Dodger Stadium start (and his first start this season), shutting out the Marlins for five innings, giving up only one hit, striking out six and getting his second victory of the season--with no losses.

This one wasn’t about making history or about measuring themselves against the World Series champions. For the Dodgers, Thursday’s 5-0 victory over the Marlins before 36,023 was about getting an easy win when an easy win was handed to them.

And for Park, it was about feeling comfortable among a crowd heavily flavored by his Korean compatriots.

“Today, I heard a lot of Korean sounds,” said Park, who last week became the first Korean to win a major league game. “They were really happy for me, and I was happy I gave happiness to Korea.”

In two Dodger Stadium starts this season by the Asian Dodger duo of Park and Japan’s Hideo Nomo, the pair pitched 16 innings without yielding a run.

“I talked with [Nomo] last night, and he told me about the hitters,” Park said. “I don’t have much experience against the Marlins, and he pitched against them in the spring. His advice helped me.”

Instead of relying on his fastball, Park threw many more off-speed pitches, especially a darting changeup that had the Marlins lunging wildly.

Said Dodger stopper Todd Worrell, who pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings--with four strikeouts--to get his third save: “I can remember when [Park] first came up in ‘94, and some of the guys jumped on his hard fastball. And he lost some confidence in that pitch. But in just two years, he’s made some adjustments and made a huge jump to where he is now.”

The Marlins, the lowest-scoring team in the National League (23 runs in 10 games), were shut out for the third time this season--and second time in two nights--and have been shut out as many times as they have victories. No other team in the majors has been shut out more than once. They haven’t scored in 18 1/3 innings.

In five innings of work, Park threw 94 pitches. The only hit was a sinking line-drive double to left by shortstop Kurt Abbott in the third.

Park’s last inning was the most dangerous--and almost prevented him from going the five innings necessary to get the win.

A half-inning after the Dodgers staked him to a 4-0 lead, Park appeared to tire in the fifth, and his pitches started sailing high. Park gave up walks to Greg Colbrunn and, with two outs, pitcher Kevin Brown on four pitches.

But, with the Dodger bullpen warming up, Park threw a high fastball that Quilvio Veras missed to end the inning.

“We just wanted him to get through the fifth inning,” Manager Tom Lasorda said. “That’s all we wanted him to do.”

The only other serious Marlin threat came in the top of the eighth, when reliever Darren Hall gave up singles to Abbott and Veras. Worrell came in to face Gary Sheffield with two out, and walked him to load the bases.

But Worrell caught cleanup hitter Jeff Conine looking at a fastball that tailed back over the inside corner for the third out.

Worrell struck out the side in the ninth for his third save.