Feeling the Pinch, DeShields Manages to Get Two Hits

Second baseman Delino DeShields, angry and frustrated when Manager Bill Russell pinch-hit for him Friday night, was summoned Saturday morning.

Russell was trying to decide whether to bench DeShields. DeShields convinced Russell to give him another shot.

By the end of the Dodgers’ 9-2 rout over the San Diego Padres, the Dodgers were hoping that this could be the game that turns around DeShields’ fate.

DeShields, in a three-for-48 slump before the game, lined out to center field during his first two at-bats. Then, in the Dodgers’ seven-run fifth inning, DeShields lined a run-scoring single to left. For an encore, he hit a blooper into center in the seventh that Padre center fielder Steve Finley misplayed into a run-scoring triple.

It was DeShields’ first multiple-hit game and RBIs since Aug. 30.

“He’s too good of a player to go through what he’s been going through,” Russell said. “A game like this, you never know what it can do to a guy. This may get him started.

“We need Delino. He’s contributed a lot to this team. As bad as it has looked, he has contributed. It’s not like he has been a total failure.”

Still, despite the horrid slump that has dropped his batting average to .222, DeShields was angry Friday night when he was lifted from the game in the seventh inning for pinch-hitter Dave Hansen. DeShields picked up his glove and headed to the clubhouse, but later returned.

“That’s something I’ll never forget for the rest of my career,” DeShields said. “I’ve never been substituted for with the game on the line.”

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It may have gotten lost in the aftermath of the Dodgers’ 4-2 loss Friday night to the Padres, but no one generated more conversation in the clubhouses than Dodger reliever Darren Dreifort.

In perhaps Dreifort’s finest pitching performance in two years since undergoing reconstructive elbow surgery, he struck out four--including Tony Gwynn, Steve Finley and Greg Vaughn--in two innings.

“That was electric,” Gwynn said. “It’s been a long, long time when a right-hander has made me look that bad. I took the first pitch, and then pow-pow, sit yourself down.

“You don’t see too many guys throwing 97-98 [mph], and the thing about it, his ball was moving. Seeing him last night sure changed my mind about their bullpen. I thought it would be a little easier once we got their starter out, but uh-uh.”

Said Padre hitting coach Merv Rettenmund: “That was the best stuff I’ve seen by anyone all year.”

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Tom Candiotti, who was knocked out of Friday’s game after 3 2/3 innings, will remain in the rotation for his final start of the season Thursday against the San Francisco Giants. Candiotti (9-10) is expected to be the odd man out of the starting rotation, no matter how far the Dodgers go into the postseason. . . . The probable pitching matchups against the Giants at Dodger Stadium: Pedro Astacio vs. Allan Watson on Tuesday, Ramon Martinez vs. William Van Landingham on Wednesday and Candiotti vs. Mark Gardner Thursday.