Rubber-armed Orel Hershiser, making his fifth start in 15 days, joined the baseball gods Thursday night, pitching the Los Angeles Dodgers to their fifth World Series title with a 5-2 victory over the Oakland Athletics.
The victory, achieved in Game 5 of this best-of-seven matchup between the National and American League pennant winners, enabled the Dodgers to become the first team to win two world championships in the 1980s.
Singing hymns on the mound to calm himself during pressure in the eighth and ninth innings, Hershiser squelched the A`s with a complete-game four-hitter, all singles, a worthy companion to his three-hit shutout
performance in Game 2.
The only difference this time was that the A`s paired two third-inning singles with a sacrifice fly to break Hershiser`s postseason scoreless inning streak at 22.
Hershiser struck out nine, high for him, but he didn`t have his best stuff or best control. He walked four. Nonetheless, he weathered a perilous eighth inning when the A`s had the potential tying run at the plate with only one out. Hershiser survived by retiring Jose Canseco and Dave Parker without allowing the ball out of the infield.
Mickey Hatcher and Mike Davis, who together hit only three home runs during the regular season in 472 at-bats, fueled the Dodgers` offense with two-run homers. Hatcher, a Dodger walk-on in the spring of 1987 who batted safely in all five games, connected in the first inning, just as he had done in Game 1. Davis` drive cleared the right-field wall in the fourth.
”It`s the old David and Goliath story,” said Dodgers manager Tom Lasorda during a joyous clubhouse celebration. ”Nobody believed we could win our division. Nobody believed we could beat the Mets. Nobody believed we could beat this great Oakland team that won 104 games.”
It wasn`t exactly a great Oakland team during the World Series. The A`s were held to 11 runs, an average of 2 a game, less than half their regular-season production. Moreover, their two big sluggers, Canseco and Mark McGwire, the ”Bash Brothers,” were limited to one hit each, home runs. Canseco was 1 for 18, McGwire 1 for 16.
The underdog Dodgers, who had a pitch-and-putt attack during the regular season, scored 21 runs in the five games, a surprising offensive display considering that three of their best hitters were sometimes missing. Kirk Gibson, their most inspirational player as well as their most dangerous hitter, had only one Series at-bat. But it was a dramatic ninth-inning pinch home run. Gibson`s home run, in retrospect, was the crucial blow in the Series.
But it was Hershiser, not Gibson, who was the Series` most valuable player. A 23-game winner, he finished the regular season with a major-league record 59 consecutive scoreless innings. Heshiser started three of the seven games in the NL playoffs against the Mets, in addition to a relief appearance. All of these starts and the two Series appearances were on three days` rest instead of his usual four.
”The Lord blessed me with a strong arm,” Hershiser said.
He also was blessed with an early lead Thursday. Hatcher`s first-inning home run staked him to an 2-0 margin. Obviously weary, Hershiser hung in and got through the second and third innings as the A`s began awakening. The A`s rocked him in the second with three hard shots but all were caught.
Second baseman Steve Sax speared Parker`s drive, which, had it been hit a foot or two in either direction, would have gone through. McGwire muscled a 400-foot drive that John Shelby caught against the center-field fence, 400 feet away. Ron Hassey, next up, went out on a long drive to left.
Singles by Carney Lansford and Tony Phillips, coupled with Stan Javier`s sacrifice fly, broke Hershiser`s postseason scoreless streak. Shouts of
”Let`s go A`s . . . Let`s go A`s,” accompanied by drum rolls, rocked the Oakland Coliseum. The Dodger lead had been narrowed to 2-1. For a brief moment, it appeared the A`s had shattered the Hershiser mystique.
But Davis, a .196 hitter during the regular season, put Hershiser back in command. Swinging at a 3-and-0 pitch, Davis connected off Oakland starter Storm Davis after Hatcher had reached with a single. With the Dodgers ahead 4-1, Rick Dempsey, Hershiser`s batterymate, doubled another run across in the sixth and Hershiser`s lead was expanded to four runs.
Hershiser was almost perfect in the middle innings. He held the A`s hitless from the fourth through the seventh, allowing only one runner, on a walk. Going into the eighth, he had retired 10 consecutive batters.
The A`s stirred. Phillips, leading off, drew a walk. Phillips went to second on an infield out and came around on Javier`s single. Another walk followed. Canseco stepped in. A home run would tie the score. Canseco fouled off two pitches, then with the count one ball, two strikes, popped up to first baseman Franklin Stubbs.
Parker, who had all three Oakland hits off Hershiser in Game 2, was next. Hershiser`s first pitch to Parker was in the dirt, the runners advancing. Parker, who had been advising his teammates to wait Hershiser out to force him to bring the ball up, swung and missed, ticked the next pitch foul and then struck out.
The ninth inning wasn`t nearly as dramatic. This time Hershiser got two quick outs. Lansford beat out a hit to deep short. Phillips was next. Hershiser fell behind, three balls and no strikes. Lansford took second, unmolested, on the second ball, then third on ball three. Lansford`s run was of no consequence.
Hershiser regained his control. Instead of swinging on 3-and-0, Phillips took a strike, then another. The count was now full. Phillips swung and missed for strike three. The game over, Hershiser stood, limp, on the mound. Dempsey hurried to him and lifted him skyward.
The Los Angeles Dodgers were world champions for the first time since 1981.Tribune photo by Charles Cherney. Oakland left-fielder Stan Javier appears about to join the spectators in his effort to grab Mickey Hatcher`s two-run homer Thursday.
