Harnisch Paints the Town Red

Pete Harnisch was a double-threat against the Dodgers on Saturday.

Harnisch pitched seven strong innings, got all nine of his strikeouts in a span of 15 batters and helped spark two rallies with singles as the Cincinnati Reds roughed up Hideo Nomo en route to a 7-3 victory.

Harnisch (5-1) gave up a run on six hits, walked two and escaped a bases-loaded jam in the fifth by retiring Bobby Bonilla on a broken-bat grounder to first base.

“I had a pretty good slider and a good breaking ball,” the right-hander said. “When I wanted to throw something down pretty hard with two strikes, I was able to do that. And that’s how you strike people out. I wasn’t too aggressive in the first inning, but I was a lot better after that.”

Harnisch has regained the form he enjoyed at Houston in 1993, when he had his best season in the majors with a 16-9 record, 185 strikeouts and a 2.98 earned-run average. And it wasn’t easy for Harnisch, who was treated for depression last season while with the New York Mets after giving up smokeless tobacco.

“It says that he’s a competitor,” said teammate Eddie Taubensee, who also caught Harnisch for three seasons while with the Houston Astros. “This is the way he threw in Houston, with a lot of confidence, and he threw very aggressively--like he’s doing now.”

Nomo (2-7) surrendered six runs and seven hits over 3 2/3 innings in what many thought would be his final appearance for Los Angeles.

The right-hander--a central figure in trade rumors the past few days as the Dodgers try to swing a deal with Seattle for five-time all-star Randy Johnson--has a 5.05 ERA and is 0-4 in his last five starts.

“Nomo is a two-pitch pitcher, and if he doesn’t get one over, the hitters are going to sit on the other one,” Dodger Manager Bill Russell said. “He didn’t have his good stuff today and he wasn’t pitching very well.”

During batting practice before Thursday night’s series opener, Russell summoned Nomo and Todd Hollandsworth into his office and General Manager Fred Claire assured both of them that their names hadn’t been mentioned as trade bait by the organization.

But Hollandsworth went 0 for 4 Saturday with three strikeouts and Nomo failed to complete four innings for the third time in his last nine starts.

“I can’t really say it didn’t affect him,” Russell said of Nomo. “But if he thought he was going to be involved in any trade talks, Fred Claire should have erased any questions he had about it. I know they were both relieved because they both want to play here. And coming from the guy who makes the deals, that should have been enough.”

The Dodgers opened the scoring with first-inning doubles by Eric Young and Gary Sheffield, but the Reds grabbed the lead with three in the third. Jon Nunnally ended an 0-for-14 drought with a two-run double, and Taubensee added a sacrifice fly for his team-leading 36th RBI.

The Reds increased the margin to 6-1 during a three-run fourth after Nomo retired the first two batters. Reggie Sanders doubled home Pokey Reese, and Chris Stynes chased Nomo with a bases-loaded, two-run single.

Harnisch, who entered the game with one hit in 26 at-bats, joked about his new-found batting stroke.

“I had a shot to get my average back down to zero, and I was trying as hard as I could,” he said.

Dmitri Young gave the Reds their final run with a homer in the seventh off reliever Eric Weaver, who gave up three hits over 3 1/3 innings in his major league debut.

Pinch-hitter Thomas Howard had an RBI single and Jose Vizcaino had a run-scoring groundout in the ninth against reliever Scott Sullivan.