Dodgers, Astacio Shake Off Marlins

Dodger pitcher Pedro Astacio has one of the most annoying and time-consuming idiosyncrasies in baseball. He wiggles his right arm like an eel before he pitches.

Astacio shook up the Florida Marlins, 6-1, Sunday before 49,728 at Dodger Stadium.

“I have no idea why he shakes his arm,” Dodger pitching coach Dave Wallace said. “We ask him all the time. It’s just part of his demeanor. That’s just nervous energy.”

“He had the same stuff but he kept the ball down,” said Wallace of Astacio, who won for the first time in eight starts. “If Pedro keeps the ball down, that’s when he’s successful.”

Astacio (1-2) was banished to the bullpen last season after compiling a 1-6 record in his first 11 starts and, after losing his first two starts of 1996, may have been in jeopardy of being sent there again when Ramon Martinez and Darren Dreifort come off the disabled list.

“He didn’t take it as a demotion,” Dodger catcher Mike Piazza said. “You have to do what you have to do to stay here. He pitched well in relief last year. He’s almost like a utility pitcher because he can go to the bullpen and start.”

But Astacio, who began Sunday’s game with the second-highest earned-run average on the staff (5.59), was in control as he yielded one run and six hits in 5 1/3 innings to earn his first victory of the season as the Dodgers beat the Marlins for the third time in four games.

“He had real good stuff,” said catcher Carlos Hernandez, who started when Piazza was given the day off. “He was more patient and relaxed. He wasn’t jumping too much and he had more concentration.”

Relievers Antonio Osuna, Mark Guthrie and Darren Hall combined to shut out the Marlins for the final 3 2/3 innings. The Dodger bullpen hasn’t been scored on in its last 16 2/3 innings, and in the last eight games relievers have given up only two runs in 26 1/3 innings (0.68 ERA).

Leadoff hitter Delino DeShields was the catalyst as the Dodgers scored in four of the first five innings.

DeShields, who had only two hits in 24 at bats (.083) during the first six games of the homestand, went three for four with a double and a triple off Marlin starter Al Leiter (2-1), who had surrendered only one run in his first two starts, and scored three runs as the Dodgers won five of seven games in their first homestand of the season to reach the .500 mark.

“It’s a long season,” DeShields said. “It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. In August and September, nobody really remembers what you did in April and May.”

Although DeShields hit only .232 as the Dodger leadoff hitter before being replaced by Brett Butler last season, Butler suggested to Manager Tom Lasorda that DeShields should lead off this season.

“It was my suggestion in spring training to try to get that done so that we can use his speed a little bit more and my bunting ability,” Butler said. “Tommy and I talked about that years ago. If we can get on base, that frees everybody else up to get more things done.”

DeShields feels comfortable batting first.

“I felt that I was ready to take that role this season,” DeShields said. “I’ve been a leadoff man all my career. When I got here things didn’t work out, but I felt it was time for me to step it up and get back in the lineup.”

Third baseman Mike Blowers ended a 0-for-15 streak with an RBI double down the right field line in the third inning.

“I just need to fight through it,” said Blowers, who is batting .114 since joining the Dodgers.

“Everybody goes through bad times during the year and I’m just going through mine at the start so it looks a lot worse than after you have 400 at-bats and you struggle for 30 or 40.

“I feel like this was a step in the right direction.”