DODGERS REPORT : Nothing Good About Perez’s Season

For Carlos Perez, it was a case of adding injury to insult.

And a fitting end to a season that gave both him and his team fits.

The left-hander’s first full year with the Dodgers was horrendous. With his fastball no longer fast and his mechanics in need of a good mechanic, Perez was 2-10 with a 7.43 ERA in 17 games. Sent to triple-A Albuquerque, Perez struggled there as well, going 3-3 with a 5.92 ERA.

But he felt he was making progress under minor league pitching coordinator Jim Benedict, who knew Perez from his days with the Montreal Expos.

“He helped me figure out I had been dropping my arm,” Perez said. “I got my fastball back. It was 90, 91 [mph] again.”

That’s why the injury was especially painful. It came Aug. 29 when a line drive caromed off Perez’s right shin, causing a soft-tissue injury that has ended his season.

Perez, put on the 60-day disabled list, was back at Dodger Stadium on Thursday night, shaking his head at the final cruel twist to his season.

“I wish I had not gotten hit in the leg,” Perez said, “so that I could show the team I was there [Albuquerque] for a reason. That would have been my last game in Albuquerque, but I never got the chance up here to show how I’ve improved.

“It’s been the toughest year I’ve ever had. I didn’t have a single complete game and that’s not me. I had a swollen knee and now I get hit on the same leg.”

But Perez, who plans on pitching in the Dominican Republic in the off-season, says he’ll come to spring training with a clear mind.

“As soon as a season is over, it’s over,” he said. “Next year will be a new year.”

*

The last time Dodger Manager Davey Johnson saw Jim “Catfish” Hunter, who died Thursday at age 53 of Lou Gehrig’s disease, Johnson couldn’t bring himself to visit with the pitcher he had faced so many times in his career. By then, the effects of the disease were already evident.

“I shook his hand and said hello,” said Johnson of his meeting with Hunter in Oakland, “and then I just had to go. Maybe it was cruel on my part, but it was tough to see him like that. I prefer to remember how happy he was when he was full of life. He was a great competitor.”

DODGER ATTENDANCE

Thursday: 33,954

1999 (68 dates): 2,648,151

1998 (68 dates): 2,660,233

Total decrease: 12,082

1999 average: 38,943

1998 average: 39,121

Average increase: 178

DODGERS’ DARREN DREIFORT

(12-13, 5.02 ERA)

vs.

METS’ AL LEITER

(11-9, 4.28 ERA)

Dodger Stadium, 7 p.m.

TV--Channel 5

Radio--KXTA (1150), KWKW (1330)

* Update--Dreifort seems to be getting stronger as the season gets longer, having won three of his last four starts and four of six. Dreifort, who had control problems earlier in the season, struck out 19 and walked only three in the four victories, covering a span of 30 1/3 innings. Leiter has a 5-2 mark and 4.44 ERA in eight career starts against the Dodgers.

* Tickets--(323) 224-1HIT.