Welch, Guerrero and Dodgers Turn Up the Heat on Reds, 2-0

CINCINNATI â€”  Welch, called the “hottest pitcher in the National Leagueâ€� by Dodger catcher Mike Scioscia, had just thrown a two-hitter and beaten the Cincinnati Reds, 2-0, Saturday night.

And Pedro Guerrero, called one of the hottest batters in baseball by many people, had just hit his third home run in three games against the Reds, a ninth-inning blast to the opposite field off his lunch host, fellow Dominican Mario Soto, who had given up a homer to Scioscia in the third.

Nonetheless, the Reds’ player-manager, Pete Rose, whose team fell six games behind Los Angeles in the National League West, stubbornly insisted that the Dodgers had to cool off sometime.

“We all know the Dodgers have a good team,� said Rose, who went hitless in four trips against Welch, a pitcher he had worn out in the past.

“But I just can’t convince myself that they’re going to continue to play as well as they are right now.

“What have they won, 14 of their last 18 (close--12 of their last 17)? The Reds in their heyday didn’t play that well.

“They’ll have their lull--it’s just none of us know when.�

It had better come soon, or it will be too late to help either the Reds or the San Diego Padres. San Diego blew a 3-1 lead in the ninth at Houston in a 4-3 loss and also is six games back, giving the Dodgers their biggest margin of the season.

Neither Welch, who won his sixth straight game with his third career two-hitter, nor Guerrero, who drew within one of league leader Dale Murphy with his 26th home run, gave the Dodger pursuers any cause for encouragement.

Welch, who has allowed just seven earned runs in his last 49 innings (a 1.28 ERA), had just one inning in which the Reds had as many as two baserunners. That was the second, when Welch walked the first two batters--Buddy Bell and Nick Esasky.

But Welch kept his head: first, when Mariano Duncan went behind second to grab Dave Concepcion’s grounder and convert it into a double play, then when Welch threw up his glove in self-defense and caught Ron Oester’s line drive. If Welch hadn’t caught that ball, his brains might have been scrambled by an Oester-izer.

“I almost had my face blown off,� Welch said. “I just stuck my glove up there. It was a rocket.�

The Reds didn’t have a hit until, with one out in the fifth, Concepcion reached out and lined a single to right. He was erased quickly when Scioscia threw him out trying to steal.

Cincinnati’s other hit came with two out in the sixth when Eddie Milner hit a double off the base of the wall in the right-field corner.

“He hit it good,� Welch said. “I was lucky it didn’t go out.�

That brought up Rose, still 25 hits short of breaking Ty Cobb’s career hit record. Rose, who hadn’t hit the ball out of the infield in four tries against Orel Hershiser the night before, had lined hard to center in the first and was thrown out on a comebacker to the mound in the fourth.

This time, Welch fell behind him in the count, 3 and 1, then threw a fastball that Rose sent screaming toward the gap in left-center. But Ken Landreaux chased it down and made a one-handed catch just before kissing the fence.

“A lot of times that would have been a gapper, because some other clubs don’t play me that way,� Rose said. “Usually, I don’t hit balls that far that high, but it was high enough that he (Landreaux) ran it down.

“I was 20 for 41 (.488) coming in (against Welch). Now I’m 20 for 45. I hit the ball hard, but I have to hit it where there are no gloves.�

Right now, that knack belongs to Guerrero, who came straight to the ballpark from Soto’s house after dining on sancocho , a stew made up of meat, yucca and bananas, among other things.

“I told him, ‘You’ll get (me) your first two times,’ because that’s the way I’ve been doing it,� Guerrero said, relating his conversation with Soto. “Early, when it’s still daylight, I can’t see the ball good here.

“But then I told him, ‘The last two times are probably going to be mine.’ �

Soto, who ranks second in the league in strikeouts with 156, struck out seven Dodgers, including Guerrero on his first at-bat.

But Soto also leads the league in gopher balls (21 home runs allowed) and threw one to Scioscia to open the third and then threw one to Guerrero with two out in the ninth. Guerrero muscled the fastball over the fence in right. “He’s going to have to cool off for us to catch (the Dodgers),� said Dave Parker, the Reds’ power source, who is bothered by a blood blister on his right hand and has just two singles in three games.

“He’s one of the strongest guys I’ve ever seen,� Parker said of Guerrero. “He goes to right as well as he goes to left.�

So Soto, despite giving the Dodgers just four hits, lost for the 12th time in 22 decisions this season.

“He pitched a great game,� Rose said of his ace. “How many times out of 10 are you going to win a game like that? Nine?�

Soto just picked the wrong time to pitch against Welch, who said he doesn’t even think about the two months he missed while his right elbow was flipping out on him.

“It doesn’t even matter,� Welch said, “as long as I’m healthy. Right now, we’re playing good baseball. The first two months were superfluous.�

Dodger Notes

Mike Scioscia, the Dodger player representative, said the Dodger players received their share of the revenue earned from licensing an assortment of products, ranging from T-shirts to bubble-gum cards. Normally, the money is distributed during spring training, Scioscia said, but he said it was held up during the financial accounting of club money. “It came out to about $1,900 or $2,000 a man,� Scioscia said. “We gave it out in case there’s a strike and some guys need help.� On whether the players will walk out Tuesday, Scioscia said: “I’m still very optimistic that we’ll get together and decide this thing. The owners are not bad people, and we’re not bad people. I just hope the owners realize how important arbitration is to us.� At the moment, players can seek salary arbitration after their second season; the owners would like to add another year and impose a ceiling on how much is awarded. . . . Scioscia’s home run Saturday was his fifth of the season, matching his career high he set in 1982 and equaled last season. Dodger Vice President Al Campanis had suggested during the winter that Scioscia might have more power if he lost some weight. “I think Al Campanis would like me to lose another 15 pounds, but I’m already 11 pounds lighter,� said Scioscia, who said he weighs 220. . . . Mariano Duncan is 0 for his last 16 and has struck out six times in three games here. “Right now, my batting average is going down, down, down,� said Duncan, whose average is down to .231. “So I’m trying to play good D (defense).� He did just that on the second-inning double play, reaching a ball that neither Bill Russell nor Dave Anderson could have gotten to earlier in the season. “If Mariano doesn’t make that play, who knows what would have happened,� Welch said. . . . Welch was won six games in a row once before in his career, from Aug. 6-Sept. 8, 1983. “Right now he’s throwing the ball the best of his career,� Scioscia said. “He’s healthy, that’s the main thing. I really think he’s underrated. He hasn’t had the real blockbuster year, but he’s been very consistent when he’s been healthy.�