Dreifort Saves Bullpen a Bit

Heading into Tuesday night’s game against the Houston Astros, you couldn’t have blamed Dodger Manager Davey Johnson had he expressed concern about the recent performances of his bullpen.

The Dodger relievers were, after all, less than dominant in the final two games of last weekend’s series against the Cincinnati Reds, failing to protect a lead in one game and allowing a deficit to grow in the other.

Dodger starter Darren Dreifort, with the help of the bullpen and timely hitting, made that notion a moot point with a solid outing in the Dodgers’ 5-3 victory in front of 26,298 at Dodger Stadium.

“Dreif threw the ball extremely well,” Johnson said. “He threw a lot of pitches and I’m going to take it easy on him early in the season. I wasn’t going to let him get in trouble with another inning. And I thought I had a fresh bullpen.”

Especially with Monday’s rainout.

Dreifort picked up his first win of the season, giving up three runs on three hits in six innings while striking out eight and walking two. He threw 94 pitches, 53 for strikes.

Terry Adams and Mike Fetters worked middle relief and Jeff Shaw pitched a scoreless ninth to pick up his fifth save.

Adrian Beltre and Todd Hundley each had two hits, two runs batted in and a home run.

The Dodgers scored first with a run in the second inning.

Eric Karros drew a leadoff walk from Astro starter Octavio Dotel and went to third a batter later when Hundley singled to right field.

Beltre followed with a sacrifice fly to center field, Karros scoring.

Houston claimed the lead in the fourth when Dreifort faltered with his control.

Dreifort walked the inning’s leadoff man, former Dodger Roger Cedeno, and promptly threw the ball away trying to pick him off first, allowing him to scamper to second base.

Dreifort then hit Jeff Bagwell in the shoulder, putting two runners on with none out.

After clean-up hitter Ken Caminiti grounded out to first, moving Cedeno and Bagwell to third and second, respectively, Richard Hidalgo singled both runners home.

The Dodgers tied it in their next at-bat when, with two out, Beltre drove an 0-and-1 Dotel pitch to left-center for his second homer.

Kevin Elster followed with a ground-rule double in the same vicinity, the ball taking a high bounce off the rubberized warning track into the pavilion seats. But Dreifort struck out to end the threat.

Houston regained the lead in the sixth.

Bagwell took Dreifort deep to left with his fourth homer of the year on an 0-and-1 pitch.

Hundley gave the Dodgers the lead back with his homer in the bottom of the inning.

After Karros had a ground-rule double down the left-field line, Hundley, batting left-handed, took a first-pitch offering from Dotel over the right-center wall.

An inning later, Devon White padded the Dodger lead with his third homer of the year, a high drive to right-center field off Astro reliever Doug Henry.

“Other than the leadoff walks I was happy,” said Dreifort, who issued two. “The home run didn’t bother me. It was just a bad pitch, and you make bad pitches every now and then, but those leadoff walks, I can do something about those.”

Gary Sheffield’s 18-game hitting streak, dating to last season, came to a close after the Dodger left fielder went 0 for 3.

Sheffield, who entered the game with a hit in each of the 12 games the Dodgers had played this season, struck out twice and flew out to center before Henry hit him with a pitch in the seventh inning.

With Monday’s rainout, the 17th time a game has been washed away by inclement weather since Dodger Stadium opened in 1962, Johnson was able to juggle his pitching rotation, effectively skipping the exciting but erratic Carlos Perez and putting him in limbo.

Perez will move to the bullpen tonight, backing up Orel Hershiser, and may come in early if Hershiser, who has a nagging groin strain, can’t sustain a long outing.

After Thursday’s day off, rookie Eric Gagne will start the series opener at Cincinnati Friday, followed by Chan Ho Park on Saturday and Dreifort, pitching on four day’s rest, on Sunday.

Kevin Brown, who broke the pinky finger on his throwing hand while bunting April 8 at New York, received clearance to start throwing full speed Monday and plans to throw in the bullpen soon.

Johnson hopes to start Brown in Monday’s makeup game at Shea Stadium against the Mets.