It’s Not Quite Like ‘88, but Old 55 Still Has Drive

Orel Hershiser was standing in front of his locker, surrounded by reporters, talking about winning a game at Dodger Stadium for the first time since . . . let’s see, you have to go all the way back to last September when he came to town with the New York Mets and beat Kevin Brown.

That’s the night Dodger General Manager Kevin Malone began to think that Hershiser might like to visit the mound at Chavez Ravine more often, like every fifth day or so.

“It fit with what we’re trying to do here, restore tradition while moving forward on the field,” Malone said before the home opener against Cincinnati. “Orel was the perfect person to bring it all together.”

So at 1:10 p.m. Friday, the bullpen gate in left field opened, the familiar No. 55 began striding toward the mound and organist Nancy Bea Hefley played his song, “Master of the House.”

The sellout crowd of 53,223 gave him a standing ovation, for neither the first nor the last time of the day. He received one when he began warming up, another when he lofted a long out to the warning track in the fifth inning.

“I got a pretty good rush from the crowd three times,” he said.

As usual, he gave better than he got.

He pitched six solid innings, allowing one run on six hits, walking two and striking out two. Manager Davey Johnson and Hershiser came to the mutual agreement that he wouldn’t start the seventh, turning the game over to the bullpen with a 2-1 lead after having thrown 98 pitches.

Then the Dodgers began to hit, scoring six more runs, to ensure Hershiser’s 135th victory as a Dodger, his first since August, 1994.

Someone mentioned to him afterward that the game was more like one of the scripts that might have crossed new Dodger CEO Bob Daly’s desk when he was running Warner Bros.

“Maybe,” Hershiser said. “But there were only two acts. The third act, I didn’t get to finish. In my younger days, I could have been out there for the finale.”

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Maybe it wasn’t the same old Bulldog.

In 1988, he pitched a record 59 consecutive scoreless innings. He pitched two Friday, giving up a leadoff home run in the third inning to Aaron Boone.

That was the inning that made him wonder if perhaps he should have pursued one of the pitching coach jobs available after last season. After Boone’s home run, Hershiser threw two strikes to Red pitcher Rob Bell and then carried him to a 3-and-2 count before striking him out. Pokey Reese followed with a double off the left-field wall.

But Hershiser is still a bulldog.

Barry Larkin grounded to shortstop for the second out, Ken Griffey Jr. walked on a 3-and-2 count, which considering the possibilities, was a win for Hershiser, and Dante Bichette popped out to first base.

“I didn’t have my good stuff,” Hershiser told Malone after the game. “But I battled.”

He won with his head as much as with his arm.

“He doesn’t have the same velocity, that same snap, that he did when he was here before,” said Tom Lasorda, his former manager. “But he knows where to throw the ball.”

“He could write a book on pitching,” Johnson said.

Reese seemed to have already read it, going three for three against Hershiser.

“I wish he’d missed the team bus,” Hershiser said.

But Griffey Jr., who was in a position more than once to ruin Hershiser’s return, couldn’t get the ball out of the infield against him.

He also struck out with the bases loaded in the seventh inning against Terry Adams, so maybe it was just a bad day for Junior. Hershiser wasn’t beating his chest.

“He’s one of those dozen guys that, no matter how well you might do against him in a particular game, you say, ‘I don’t care to ever face him again,’ ” he said.

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But, so far, Hershiser has deflated the theory that he was brought back by the public relations department.

There was bound to be confusion when Dodger brass started plotting during spring training to arrange the starting rotation so that Hershiser would be on the mound for the home opener. What, Sandy Koufax wasn’t available?

Hershiser wouldn’t hear of it.

“This isn’t some victory tour because I’m wearing a Dodger uniform again,” he said. “This is an intense athlete going out to beat you.”

A strong spring training, an injury to Brown and a snow-out in New York later, Hershiser earned the assignment.

“I heard talk about him being a spot starter and coming out of the bullpen,” Lasorda said. “But if you know anything about the Bulldog, you knew he was going to spring training to compete for a spot in the rotation.”

Hershiser appreciated his moment Friday as much as anyone.

If you had told him when he left the Dodgers in 1995 that he would be back on the mound at 41 for the home opener, he would have thought it would be to throw out the ceremonial first pitch.

“I’m so blessed,” he said. “Five years ago, to think that I’m done and five years later I’m an integral part of the team. . . . “

Hershiser thanked Johnson after the game for the opportunity.

Johnson shrugged. He is not particularly sentimental about winning games.

“I thank you,” he said.

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Randy Harvey can be reached at his e-mail address: randy.harvey@latimes.com.