Dodgers Get Off Deck to Flatten Browning, Reds

The Cincinnati Reds ran off Orel Hershiser, a longtime nemesis. They ran through catcher Mike Scioscia, knocking the legs out from under the league’s foremost plate-blocker. They even tried running through walls.

But when the Reds were through running Monday night, Dodger Stadium was still standing. And so were the Dodgers, who shook a few walls themselves with four home runs that sent Cincinnati crashing, 6-5, after the Reds led, 5-1.

The crowd of 33,032 witnessed a game worthy of teams fighting for a pennant, which at the moment these teams are not. The Dodgers are fifth in the West, the Reds are last.

“But at this stage of the game you don’t worry about where you are in the standings or how far you are out,” said Mike Marshall, who had two of the Dodger home runs--one a tremendous shot that split the flagpoles in dead center field and reached the chain-link gate to the parking lot, an estimated 450 to 475 feet away, on a couple of bounces.

“You’re concerned with how you’re playing baseball. I guarantee you that when the score was 5-1, we weren’t thinking about last place in the dugout.”

Judging by the high fives in the Reds’ dugout after pitcher Tom Browning’s hard slide into Scioscia in the top of the fourth, the Reds were thinking of vacating last place.

Browning had hit a two-out single, stolen second and scored on Eddie Milner’s ground-ball base hit to right. Marshall’s throw appeared to have beaten Browning to the plate, but Scioscia went down in a heap. The Dodger catcher never got the ball; what he did get was a sprained right ankle and a strained muscle in his leg.

“He (Scioscia) got in the way and I wasn’t about to let him stop me,” said Browning, the left-hander who won 20 games last season and was named Rookie Pitcher of the Year.

“I wanted to get a run out of it.”

Browning got his run, but he may have run himself out of the game as well. For in the bottom of the inning, Bill Madlock, who started the night 3 for 33, hit a two-run homer off the left-field foul pole and Marshall followed with his second homer of the night and league-leading 15th of the season.

“I’ve seen Dave Parker hit a few balls like that,” said Milner, the Reds’ center fielder, “but that was a tremendous shot. He’s just a strong man, and he’s putting it all together.”

That made it 5-4. And after Tom Niedenfuer rescued Hershiser and pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the top of the fifth, the Dodgers tied it in the bottom, when Milner took on the outfield fence and lost in pursuit of Mariano Duncan’s game-tying, inside-the-park home run.

Milner made a long run from left to right center and gloved Duncan’s ball before the wall got him.

“I held the ball, too,” Milner said, “until I hit the turf. I guess you’ve got to take the ball out of your glove and show it, but I didn’t have time to do that.”

While Milner lay on the ground stunned, Duncan sped around the bases before the ball was relayed into the infield.

“They’re going to have to repair that fence tomorrow,” Parker said. “That’s why they call him (Milner) Real Man.”

While Niedenfuer, who hadn’t pitched in a week, and Ken Howell held the Reds hitless for the last 4 innings after Browning’s bunt single, the Dodgers broke the tie in the seventh.

Reggie Williams singled, was sacrificed to second, stole third and scored on Duncan’s single, just over the head of shortstop Dave Concepcion.

“There’s only one way to come back when you’re down like that early,” Marshall said.

“You’ve got to get a big hit--and Bill Madlock supplied that. You’ve got to stop ‘em, and Tom Niedenfuer did that.

“Those are two guys, who by their own admission were struggling. It was great to see, because we’re going to need both of them.

“And I was struggling, too. And I suppose you can add Mariano, too.”

Niedenfuer, in particular, was cheered by the win, his fourth of the season.

“It’s been a tough two months,” he said. “I sat down and analyzed myself mentally and physically. It felt pretty good. The week off definitely helped.”

Howell, who pitched the last two innings, got his fourth save after the Reds rolled up a dozen hits off nemesis Hershiser, who was 5-1 against them lifetime.

“I don’t want to say too much,” Hershiser said. “I don’t want to get (Pete) Rose mad.”

Parker, who went down on strikes against both Niedenfuer and Howell, had something to say about that.

“They get paid, too,” he said. “And they showed why, tonight.”

Scioscia went home carrying a bag of ice but outwardly bearing no hard feelings.

“He (Browning) played aggressively, and that was a big run for them,” he said. “I’m sure they were happy.

“They can do whatever they want. That’s fine . . . They were on a roll. I’m just glad it collapsed on them.”

Dodger Notes

Pitcher Bob Welch, who hurt his back last Friday while pitching to Billy Hatcher of the Houston Astros, was examined by Dr. Frank Jobe, who said Welch should be able to make his scheduled start on Wednesday. Welch’s left calf still is sore from the line drive hit by Montreal’s Tim Raines on May 22 . . . The hard feelings that existed between Dave Parker and Bill Madlock after last summer’s drug trial were nowhere in evidence before Monday night’s game. Parker, who named Madlock as a user of amphetamines during his testimony in last summer’s trial--Madlock was cleared of any wrongdoing by Commissioner Peter Ueberroth--sent a batboy into the Dodger clubhouse to summon his former teammate, with whom he played in Pittsburgh. The two shook hands and chatted briefly behind the batting cage. “The situation last year, it’s unfortunate that it happened,” Madlock said. “A lot of people were involved who shouldn’t have been involved. You can’t cut off a lifelong friendship. Everything is fine. We knew it was, anyway, this is just the first time I’ve seen him.” After Parker was sued this spring by the new owners of the Pirates for breach of contract, Madlock spoke out in his defense, saying he’d always given a full effort on the field. “He (Parker) said he appreciated that,” Madlock said. “Will he come to my place for lunch? I’m sure he eventually will, because every time we go to Cincinnati I have dinner at his mother’s house. She’s a good cook, too.”