Chapter 6: 1985, perhaps let's rethink that decision
A year of some great baseball by the Dodgers falls apart with just one decision
After seeing the San Diego Padres win the division and go on to the World Series the previous year, the Dodgers got healthy and found themselves back atop the National League West.
The Dodgers experimented early at two positions. One was in left field where the Dodgers played Al Oliver. That was a disaster and Oliver was dispatched to Toronto. The other position was shortstop, where injuries to Dave Anderson and Bob Bailor, opened the door for 22-year old infielder Mariano Duncan to get the job. Duncan was not bad (he wasn’t particularly good and he played second base in the minors), but he managed to stand in the field competently, unlike Al Oliver.
The pitching staff was outstanding with four starters: Fernando Valenzuela, Jerry Ruess, Orel Hershiser, and Bob Welch, all sporting ERAs under 3.00. Tom Niedenfuer pitched a lot out of the bullpen, 106 innings in 64 appearances. Keep a note of that and we’ll refer to it later.
San Diego led much of the early going until the Dodgers, or in particular, Pedro Guerrero, heated up in June. Guerrero hit 15 home runs in the month with an OPS of 1.297. Guerrero missed some time in July and in 20 games, he batted .460.
The NL West race was little noticed that year for two reasons:
The NL East race between the Cardinals and Mets was epic with both teams winning over 100 games. Rookie pitcher Dwight Gooden had one of the best rookie seasons by any pitcher not named Grover Alexander.
The Yankees were competing for the AL East title and there were dreams of a Subway Series. Ultimately, the Yankees finished behind Toronto, who captured the dreams of no sportswriters. Except Canadian ones.
The NLCS opened in Los Angeles (because they just alternated home field between divisions back in the day) and the Dodgers won the first two games. Valenzuela and Niedenfuer combined for a 4-1 win in Game 1. Game 2 was a complete game win for Orel Hershiser by a comfortable 8-2 margin.
Then the Dodgers went to St. Louis. It was not a fun trip.
In Game 3, Welch twice had Cardinals speedster Vince Coleman picked off, only for Coleman to escape because of an error. Coleman would go on to score each time. The Cardinals would win 4-2.
Game 4 would be much worse. The Cardinals were no without Coleman, who suffered a broken leg when an automatic tarapaulin in the Busch Stadium field caught his leg. The Cardinals were not slowed down. They ran the Dodgers off the field and won 12-2.
The next day was rainy and Game 5 started late because of rain (and forced me to skip a class at UCLA!). The teams traded pairs of runs. Tommy Herr had a 2-run double and Bill Madlock hit a 2-run homer for the Dodgers.
Tommy Lasorda thought that 8 innings and 129 pitches was enough for Fernando Valenzuela was enough. So he brought in Niedenfuer, who hadn’t pitched the last two games. The second batter Niedenfuer faced was Ozzie Smith, who had a grand total of zero home runs hit in the majors as a lefty. Smith hit a game-ending home run.
The series returned to Los Angeles, where it was not rainy. The Dodgers led 4-1 after 6 and Orel Hershiser appeared to be in control. Then he was not. Three singles brought in two runs to make it 4-3 and brought in Niedenfuer.
Niedenfuer faced Smith again. This time, Smith did not homer. He just tripled and the game was tied. Niedenfuer avoided further damage with strikeouts of Jack Clark and Andy Van Slyke.
Mike Marshall homered in the bottom of the eighth to put the Dodgers ahead 5-4. All the Dodgers needed were three outs and they would force a Game 7.
Niedenfuer struck out Cesar Cedeno to start the inning. Willie McGee, in his MVP year, followed with a single. With Ozzie Smith batting, McGee stole second. Smith walked on a full count. Tommy Herr then grounded out to first and both runners moved up.
Now it was time for a manager to make a decision. The Cardinals had the tying run on third, the go-ahead run on second. The batter was Clark, the Cardinals lone power threat. The Cardinals had hit just two homers in the series. Niedenfuer had pitched 2 1/3 innings in relief and was at 47 pitches. He had already struck out Clark.
Tommy Lasorda had two options:
Leave Niedenfuer in the game and hope that he could get out Clark again.
Intentionally walk Clark and bring in lefty Jerry Reuss to face rookie lefty Andy Van Slyke. There were two other lefties available in the Dodgers pen in Carlos Diaz and Rick Honeycutt. But Lasorda only trusted Reuss, who was a starter. The Cardinals had just one right handed batter left on the bench in backup catcher Tom Nieto.
Lasorda decided to cast his fate with Niedenfuer, fearing that Reuss would not be as effective coming out of the pen. Also, the Cardinals had hit Reuss hard in his only start in the series.
So Niedenfuer pitched to Clark. Clark homered deep to left on the first pitch. The Cardinals won the game 7-5 and the series in six games.
The Cardinals, heavy favorites over the Royals in the World Series, lost in seven games.
Niedenfuer would pitch for the Dodgers in 1986 and part of 1987 before being traded to the Orioles for John Shelby and Brad Havens. He would finish his career with the Cardinals.
Clark eventually worked for the Dodgers as a hitting coach.
I thought this entire article would be about the photo.
When Al Oliver was in Montreal, his nickname was "Scoop." He wasn't very good defensively there either.