When a Young Pitcher Was Toast of Dodgers

This was before Fernando Valenzuela had picked up much English, when he was just a happy, pudgy 20-year-old with an impish grin--and talent beyond belief.

Eighteen years ago today, on a gloomy, gray afternoon, the prodigal son of farmers in the Mexican countryside beat the Montreal Expos and put the Dodgers into the World Series with an epic pitching performance.

And the elder statesman of the Dodger batting lineup, Rick Monday, delivered a ninth-inning home run that won it, 2-1, and the National League championship series, 3-2.

In his first full major league season, Valenzuela had posted a 13-7 record with a 2.48 earned-run average, his screwball, the best since Carl Hubbell’s, many said.

He went 8 2/3 innings, allowed three hits, drove in his team’s first run and, after Monday had smacked the game winner, got the victory.

The victory culminated another Dodger comeback. In the division series, the Dodgers had become the first team to wipe out a 0-2 deficit, trimming the Houston Astros in a best-of-five series. In beating Montreal, they rebounded from a 2-1 Expo lead.

In the Series, they lost the first two, then swept four from the Yankees.

When Valenzuela beat the Expos, he was frequently behind in counts. But he battled all the way to the ninth before giving way to reliever Bob Welch, who threw one pitch, to Jerry White, who grounded out to end the game.

In the first, when Montreal scored its only run, Valenzuela hit Tim Raines with a pitch, then retired 18 of the next 19. Valenzuela’s ground ball single between first and second in the fifth produced Los Angeles’ first run.

And Monday’s homer? According to Expo pitcher Steve Rogers, it was “a hanging sinker.” Monday hit it on a high arc, and the ball cleared the right-center fence by 10 feet.

Valenzuela, when asked how it felt to be headed to the World Series, said, “Bueno.”

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Also on this date: In 1968, at Mexico City, Laguna Beach schoolteacher Bill Toomey won the Olympic decathlon. . . . On the same day, Notre Dame quarterback Terry Hanratty passed legendary George Gipp in total yards with a 269-yard day in a 58-8 rout of Illinois. . . . In 1957, Maurice “Rocket” Richard of the Montreal Canadiens became the first NHL player to score 500 goals.