Dodgers Can’t Solve Glavine

Tom Glavine was drafted by teams in two professional sports, the Atlanta Braves and the L.A. Kings.

Much to the Dodgers regret, he chose the Braves.

Because while Glavine may look as if he’s merely an above average left-hander on a below-average ballclub to the rest of the league, to the Dodgers, he looks as unstoppable as Wayne Gretzky.

So Glavine pitches for the struggling Atlanta Braves.

No problem.

So he got only one run to work with Monday night at Dodger Stadium.

No sweat.

So he was pitching with a pulled right thigh muscle.

No big deal.

Glavine (10-6) made his run stand up as he always seems to do against the Dodgers, shutting them out, 1-0, on four hits before a crowd of 27,284.

Atlanta third baseman Jeff Blauser won the game with a home run in the third inning.

“I can’t explain it,” said Glavine of his dominance of the Dodgers, “but hopefully it will continue.

“I’m just more confident. Last year, I couldn’t go to my off-speed pitch and I kept hurting myself by walking people. This year I’ve had great control and I’m able to use my off-speed pitches.”

Don’t think the Dodgers haven’t noticed. Glavine is 4-0 against them in ‘89, having given up two unearned runs in 32 2/3 innings. Twice he has shut them out and three times he has pitched complete games.

A year ago, his record against the Dodgers was 0-5 with a 7.55 earned-run average.

The hard-luck loser Monday was Ramon Martinez (3-1), who equaled a career-high with nine strikeouts and also gave up only four hits.

Martinez sailed through the first six Atlanta batters he faced, striking out three.

But the seventh batter, Blauser, found a pitch to his liking and sailed it over the center-field wall, just beyond the outstretched glove of Jose Gonzalez.

It was Blauser’s sixth home run, and the sixth Martinez has allowed in six starts.

That was the extent of the Atlanta offense. But remember who was pitching. And remember on whose mound he was pitching.

The Dodgers threatened a couple of times.

In the fourth inning, Willie Randolph singled and, with two out, stole second. Jeff Hamilton then sent a long fly ball in the same direction as Blauser’s. But this one came down a few feet short of the center-field wall, safely in the grasp of Oddibe McDowell.

In the fifth, Gonzalez led off by bouncing a ball off the left-center wall for a double. Franklin Stubbs’ fly ball to center sent Gonzalez to third.

But there he stayed as Mike Scioscia bounced to second and Martinez grounded to third.

Dodger Notes

Outfielder Mike Huff never caught the clues. His teammates on the triple-A Albuquerque club kept dropping hints Sunday that he need not worry about being given a day off, his first in several months. “Don’t worry about your average,” he was told. “It’s going to stay where it is the rest of the year.” Finally, his manager, Kevin Kennedy said to him, “You still don’t know, do you?” Huff indeed had no idea that he had been recalled by the Dodgers and was hours away from putting on his first major league uniform. Huff’s mother, the former Karen Mendyka, was a top javelin thrower in the early 1960s. She finished third in the 1960 Olympic trials after spraining an ankle. Karen Huff, a Los Angeles resident, missed her son’s first major league game. She’s in Oregon for the Senior Olympics.

With Kal Daniels (sore right knee) and Mickey Hatcher (strained left hamstring) on the disabled list, the Dodgers have made a total of 17 such moves this season. They made only 11 all of last year. . . . Hatcher was given the Big Brother of the Year Award before Monday’s game for his work with children.