Glad Dodger Hand Extended to Strawberry

SAN DIEGO —  In the seventh inning of the 12th game of the season Sunday, the Dodgers finally saw what they have been waiting to see since November.

The Darryl Strawberry Home Run Handshake.

Strawberry and teammate Lenny Harris wagged their fingers, waved their hands, then executed a miniature forearm bash after Strawberry’s first home run in a Dodger uniform highlighted the Dodgers’ 6-0 victory over the San Diego Padres before 36,269 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

“So, did you like that home run or what?” Strawberry asked after ending the longest home-run drought at the start of a season in his career by homering in his 40th at-bat.

Actually, somebody said, the celebration was even better.

“Aw, that’s just something Lenny thought up in spring training, something just for us,” Strawberry said. “That Lenny, he’s a character.”

The bases-empty drive over the right-field fence against San Diego left-hander Rich Rodriguez cast a long shadow over other Dodger highlights Sunday, some of which were even more impressive.

Such as Ramon Martinez throwing a five-hit shutout, striking out nine, retiring the Padres’ final 10 hitters in order.

Or Martinez getting a two-run single in the second inning for a 2-0 lead.

Or Mike Scioscia driving a ball into the right-center field gap and chugging into third base with his first triple since Aug. 3, 1987.

Now that was something.

“I think the last time he got a triple, the outfielders collided or something,” Manager Tom Lasorda said.

“Wrong,” Scioscia said. “The last time I had a triple, the ball ricocheted off the left fielder’s knee and rolled all the way to the 404 sign.”

But much of the Dodgers focus was on Strawberry, who appears to be breaking out of his slump. He hit .273 on the just-completed seven-game trip, with a homer, a triple, three doubles and three RBIs.

“We all knew the big guy would hit one soon or later,” Harris said. “To have that happen, it got everybody fired up.”

The Dodgers were so focused on Strawberry, Brett Butler actually called the homer from the bench.

“We talked before the game, and Darryl had said something like, he thought he might go deep today,” Butler said. “When he looked at two fastballs on that at-bat, I told everyone, ‘This is it, he’s going deep right here.”

And on a 2-and-2 fastball, that’s exactly what happened. After a slow trot around the bases, with the sweet sounds of boos raining upon him from every corner of the stadium, Strawberry met Harris in the dugout for their new handshake.

“Not hitting a home run really didn’t concern me--I knew they would come,” Strawberry said with a relaxed smile as big as the weight that had just been lifted from his shoulders.

He added, “I’ve been around long enough to know that if I went up there thinking about hitting a homer, I would never hit one. I took two good pitches, then he threw one right there, and that was it.

“But this is just home run number one. We’ve got a long way to do.”

The Dodgers felt that Sunday was not just a starting point for Strawberry’s power hitting, but for the team, which finished this trip at 4-3 and is returning home 6-6 despite struggling on both offense and defense.

“I think we can feel the momentum building around here,” said Scioscia, who leads the team with a .386 average. “Everybody is disappointed at a couple of games we played on the trip, particularly here (San Diego), but the way we came out of it, you’d have to say it was a good trip.”

That momentum was built Sunday with Martinez, who gave up six runs in three innings in San Francisco last week but rebounded with a vengeance.

“I know I do bad last time, so I knew I had to do good this time,” said Martinez, who improved his record to 2-1 with the Dodgers’ second shutout in three days.

Dodgers pitchers have given up just one earned run in the past 28 innings while striking out 17 and walking just six during that time.