Caring Karros Provides a Spark

Dee Deardorff, Dodger fan, went to sleep happy Thursday night.

He didn’t care that the Dodgers’ 5-2 victory over the Florida Marlins on Thursday night in front of a Dodger Stadium crowd of 34,804 merely boosted the team’s record to a still mediocre 61-60.

He didn’t care that the Dodgers still lost two of three to the Marlins, the worst team in baseball.

He didn’t care that victory still left the Dodgers’ five games behind the Chicago Cubs and trailing two other teams as well in the National League’s wild-card race.

He didn’t know that Raul Mondesi was taken to a nearby hospital for precautionary X-rays after fouling a ball off his left shin in the fifth inning. Those X-rays were negative.

Deardorff is 78, he has lung cancer and he is confined to a Glendale facility. Dodger first baseman Eric Karros spent 45 minutes at that facility Thursday afternoon, brightening Deardorff’s day, providing a spark.

And it is people like Deardorff who, in turn, can provide a spark for the Dodgers, like Karros, in a season that sometimes seems to be going nowhere.

Asked to hit a home run for Deardorff, Karros was quick to point out he is not Babe Ruth.

But Karros did the next best thing, providing a spark for his teammates. Despite the fact he has never been known for his speed, Karros legged out an infield single to short in the second inning and scored the first run of the game on a Charles Johnson single, arriving at home plate just ahead of the throw to begin a three-run inning.

The Dodgers’ final two runs came in the fourth inning on third baseman Adrian Beltre’s third home run of the season. Beltre may have been given a spark by the news that Bobby Bonilla, who has been struggling defensively in left field, will now become a pinch-hitter and work toward a still undefined role at third. Bonilla is recovering from the torn Achilles’ tendon he suffered last season and that has limited his mobility in the outfield.

A big beneficiary of Beltre’s blast and the other Dodger runs was left-hander Brian Bohanon (6-7), who held the Marlins to two runs and four hits through eight innings before giving way to closer Jeff Shaw in the ninth.

Bohanon is one of the candidates to return to the bullpen when right-hander Ismael Valdes, who is out because of a strained stomach muscle, returns to the rotation.

But with every outing, Bohanon seems to be putting more and more distance between himself and the bullpen.

It’s not just the fact that Bohanon, who came to the Dodgers from the New York Mets in a July 10 trade, has won four of his last five decisions. It’s the manner in which he has won them.

Bohanon, the first to admit he’ll never be a threat to any of Nolan Ryan’s strikeout records, is a master at inducing the opposition into hitting the ball on the ground. In his last four starts, 85 of the 95 men he has retired have failed to hit the ball to the outfield.

“When I’m throwing the ball well,” he said, “it means I’m throwing it downward and keeping it off the fat part of the bat. I tried to keep them off-balance tonight. That’s the key to my game. I am not going to overpower anybody.”

No less a baseball authority than Jim Leyland, the Florida manager, was impressed with Bohanon.

“I tip my hat to him,” Leyland said. “He pitched a hell of a ballgame.”

The Dodgers beat Brian Meadows (9-9), but Manager Glenn Hoffman was more relieved than exhilarated when it was over.

“It wasn’t easy,” he said.

Thanks to Mark Kotsay. A product of Cal State Fullerton, Kotsay had a great homecoming, going eight for 14 in the three-game series.

Thursday night, he singled in the Marlins’ first run in the third inning. In the sixth, Kotsay tripled and came in on a groundout.

So when Shaw gave up back-to-back singles to the Marlins opening the ninth, Florida was back in it.

But Shaw retired the next three Marlins to pick up his 35th save.

And provide a perfect ending to Dee Deardorff’s day.