Now L.A. Has to Do It One More Time in Playoff Today

By MIKE LITTWIN, Times Staff Writer

The Dodgers got just what they deserved Sunday, a curtain call.
      In the season that refuses to end, the Dodgers asked themselves back for an encore, a fitting tribute to the madness that has taken grip of Dodger Stadium.
      Unlike Muhammad Ali's, theirs was a comeback that took. With Sunday's 4-3 decision, the Dodgers beat Houston a third straight time to tie the Astros for the National League West title and forced a one-game playoff today at 1 p.m. at Dodger Stadium,
      In the Dodger clubhouse, there seemed to be a winner already. There were hugs, wrist-shattering high fives. Everything but champagne, a magnum or two of which rest unopened near the Astros clubhouse.
      "I wouldn't mind sleeping here tonight," Davey Lopes said. "Better than that, let's play another, the last game, right now. Let's do it while we're hot."
      Both teams have already played 162 gems and both teams are 92-70.
      And after those 162 gems, the Astros are forced to spend the longest weekend of their lives in the smog and fog and bedlam that is L.A.
      To conclude the regularly scheduled portion of the season of the comeback, the Dodgers came back Sunday as well, Ron Cey's two-run homer in the eighth erasing a 3-2 deficit and sending a frenzied mob of 52,339 into varying degrees of ecstasy.
      All but out of it three days ago, suddenly the Dodgers are all even.
      The winner of today's one-game playoff heads to Philadelphia for the National League playoffs.
      Should the Dodgers get there, and no one is now willing to tell them they can't, they would risk the danger of anticlimax. But it's a risk they'll gladly take.
      Topping Sunday's game, its excitement and drama would be as improbable as the Dodgers tying the Astros:
      --Cey hit his homer playing on a bad leg, after fouling a ball off his ankle, after missing two bunt attempts, after fouling off three 3-2 pitches from Frank LaCorte.
      --Don Sutton, the winningest pitcher in Dodger history, who beat the Astros Friday night in what many figured to be his last game as a Dodger, made his fourth relief appearance in 11 years to get one batter and one very big save.
      --Manny Mota, the ageless wonder, the one they used to call papa and now call coach, delivered a crucial pinch-hit that put the Dodgers on the precipice of victory.
      There was even a dugout shouting match between Jay Johnstone and Tom Lasorda when the Dodger manager was about to pull Johnstone in the ninth for a defensive replacement. "I flew off the handle," Johnstone said. "I just wanted to let him know how I felt before he made a move." Johnstone said Lasorda shouted back but kept him in the game. The right fielder proceeded to make a catch in foul territory that carried him into the stands and a near diving catch of a sinking liner.
      And what the Dodgers and Astros couldn't deliver on the field, the fans did off it. There was electricity in the air that all the Dodgers wanted to credit as an important catalyst for victory.
      "It's contagious," said Derrel Thomas, one of the many contributors to the Dodger win. "We hear the fans. They've put us over the top."
      Actually, the Dodgers are not over the top. It's a spot they share, after three wins in three days, with the Astros. Dave Goltz, for whom the Dodger paid $3 million as a free agent, will pitch against Joe Niekro in the season finale plus one.
      "I'm excited," Goltz said. "I've never been through anything like this."
      By the game's end every Dodger had to say the same.
      Rookie Steve Howe, the third Dodger reliever of the day, was trying to protect the Dodgers slim lead. But with one out, Gary Wood singled to right and an out later Enos Cabell single to left.
     
Surprise...Here Comes Sutton
      Lasorda went to the mound, and the fans, for the first time, began to boo, until they saw it was Sutton taking the mound.
      He threw on strike to pinch-hitter Denny Walling and then induced him to hit a grounder to second, a ground ball that Lopes surrounded and then threw to first.
      "I didn't know what Tommy was doing," Lopes said. "But then I saw I saw Sutton come in."
      "I knew I wasn't going to throw the ball by anyone," said Sutton, who had just been summoned to warm up. "But after 15 years, I think I ought to be able to finesse one batter."
      The Dodgers, who were losing, 2-1, in the ninth Friday only to win in 10, were down, 3-0, by the fourth inning. Burt Hooton hadn't lasted two, but Vern Ruhle who was pitching with two stitches in his right index finger, couldn't last three.
     
Cey's 28th Homer is His Biggest
      The Dodgers got a run in the fifth when Lopes singled home Thomas from third, a run in the seventh when Mota drove in Pete Guerrero from second and the final two on Cey's eighth- inning blast to left.
      "I was looking for a pitch to drive," said Cey, who was found, typically, in the trainer's room, his hamstring pull secondary to the two ice packs covering his left ankle. "I wasn't thinking about the pain."
      Of course, he felt no pain rounding the bases, Steve Garvey ahead of him.
      Garvey had reached base when third baseman Cabell couldn't handle his ground ball. Twice Cey tried to bunt him over but failed. After the count was worked to 3-2, Garvey became a runner and Cey a fouler, the first time off his ankle.
      "With Steve running," Cey said, "a ball hit in the alley might score him. I wasn't thinking home run, but I thought that on a 3-2 pitch I might get one I could handle."
      It was the third one-run win of the series, the 64th one-run game the Dodgers have played in a season that lacked some things, perhaps, but rarely excitement.
      The Dodgers might have broken the game open in the seventh. Guerrero and Joe Ferguson singled to open the inning and Thomas bunted them along. Mota got his base hit, scoring one rune before Houston replaced Joe Sambito with LaCorte.
      Lopes grounded out against a drawn -in in field, pinch-hitter Johnstone walked, but Dusty Baker fouled out. It should be mentioned that the crowd gave Baker a standing ovation despite the seemingly costly out.
     
Astros Almost Win the Bunting
      The Astros also had a would-be game-breaking inning. Cesar Cedano opened the second with a bunt single, stole second and made it to third when Hooton misplayed Art Howe's bunt. Alan Ashby singled home one run and Craig Reynolds another when Lasorda determined that this was not Hooton's day.
      Bobby Castillo, who allowed a run in the forth, cut off the rally and, in effect, saved the day. He was succeeded by Fernando Valenzula, Howe and finally Sutton.
      "It's about time Sutton picked us up," kidded Howe, who has saved a few for Sutton this season.
      "I just threw two pitches," Sutton said. "The credit should go to Castillo and the other guys."
      Credit almost went to the Astros. Jeff Leonard opened the ninth with a foul ball toward the right-filed stands which Johnstone caught before tumbling n head-first. Woods followed with a sinking liner to right that Johnstone almost caught.
      "I would have had it," Johnstone, who said he was tired hearing that he is a defensive liability, "but I was worried that it might go through."
      Terry Puhl followed with a slow grounder to second on which Lopes made what may have been the most important play of the game. He wheeled to second to barely get Woods. When Cabell followed with his single, the Astros would have tied the game if Lopes had made the play easier.
      "I thought I could get him with a good throw," Lopes said. I didn't want the tying run at second base.
      Still, there were runners at first and third and Lasorda went to Sutton, whose contract ends this season. He may not be a Dodger next year, but he was excited as any Sunday.
      "It would be easier to cap a nuclear reactor than the excitement we've had here," Sutton said. "For the first time in my 15 years here, it feels like we have a 10th man in the stands. It's very exciting to part of it."
      The Dodgers have been part of every National League playoff, today's being the fifth.
      But even the '51 playoffs, when the Giants caught the Dodgers, may not have exceeded this Dodger charge.
      A week ago, Davey Lopes, team spokesman, was saying he didn't see how the Dodgers, playing with so many injuries, could possibly win.
      "But on Friday all I could think of was the '78 Series when we won the fist two and the Yankees came back to beat us four straight," he said. "I don't see how anything's going to stop us now."

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