A Spotless Effort Seems to Give Hershiser a Spot

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — It felt like 1988 all over again. Well, for at least five innings Saturday.

That’s how long Orel Hershiser befuddled Baltimore Oriole batters in a Grapefruit League game at Fort Lauderdale Stadium. Hershiser, 41, did not give up a hit--he hit a batter and walked one--in his five innings of the Dodgers’ 2-1 victory.

Not bad for a guy who entered his second Dodger tour of duty this spring seen as a long reliever. With his performance, Hershiser showed why he deserves a spot in the Dodger starting rotation, a fact becoming more clear by the day.

“I was just working on mechanics for the first two or three innings and didn’t really think I had [great] stuff,” said Hershiser, who won the Cy Young Award and led the Dodgers to a World Series title in 1988. “I had good stuff but I didn’t have stuff that I thought was very efficient, that I could repeat. So I kept working on mechanics and just got mad at myself and told myself to just throw the ball, forget about thinking. And things started coming together a little better. It happens.”

It has happened a lot lately for Hershiser.

Consider: Hershiser has not given up an earned run in his last 13 innings, dropping his spring earned-run average to 1.80 in six appearances.

Before the game, Manager Davey Johnson said Chan Ho Park would throw the second game of the season against the Montreal Expos (after Kevin Brown starts opening day), and that Darren Dreifort would start the fifth game, the series opener at Shea Stadium against the New York Mets.

That likely leaves Hershiser and left-hander Carlos Perez jockeying for the third and fourth spots, with struggling rookie Eric Gagne relegated to the dark horse role.

But with Hershiser’s performance, it doesn’t seem as if it really matters how Gagne performs the rest of the spring.

“In some ways I think we’re a stronger club if I’m not in the rotation,” Hershiser said. “Because that means that Carlos is throwing excellent, Gagne is throwing excellent and that means that we’re a very deep pitching staff with a guy in the bullpen that can come in and start at a moment’s notice and also do any of the roles in the bullpen.”

Gagne, who was 0-2 with a 15.63 ERA in four Grapefruit League appearances (three starts), pitched in a triple-A game against the Mets on Saturday and did not give up a run on five hits while striking out five and walking two in six innings.

“Spring has been tough on Gagne, there’s been some ups and downs with Perez and we’re still trying to figure out if Hershiser’s going to be part of my rotation,” Johnson said before the Dodger win.

Johnson said he is putting Dreifort in the No. 5 spot to save him from pitching on the artificial turf of Montreal’s Olympic Stadium.

“He’s pitched very well this spring,” Johnson said of Dreifort, who has been battling a trick knee. “He’s ahead of where he was last year at this time, but with his knee we want to have him open in New York, off the turf in Montreal. If he doesn’t mind the cold, he’s better off on the grass.”

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Count shortstop Kevin Elster among those hoping the Dodgers take a serious look at Las Vegas as a new spring training home.

Elster, who was retired a year ago and has rejuvenated his career this spring, has lived for three years in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson, where a once-proposed spring training facility was to be built by 1999. The Dodgers are headlining a reported meeting in Las Vegas Monday and are expected to be joined by the Orioles, Texas Rangers, Houston Astros, Toronto Blue Jays and Cleveland Indians, despite the city’s image of excess.

“It’s exciting. I’m trying to figure out a way to make money out of this,” Elster joked. “We’re professionals and we’re expected to act like professionals. Believe me, these guys get out there and go to Vegas, after the first week, they’ll realize they can’t be going out every night. They gotta get up in the morning.

“I’m all for it.”

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The Dodgers play host to the Florida Marlins today at Holman Stadium. Perez is scheduled to start for the Dodgers and Vladimir Nunez will pitch for the Marlins.