Claire, Astacio Meet About Outburst

This time, the scene was far more private, the emotions much calmer.

And this time, Pedro Astacio just listened.

The speaker was Fred Claire, Dodger executive vice-president. He met with the Dodger right-hander before Monday night’s game in an area near the showers and reiterated, in very plain terms, the inappropriateness of Astacio’s public outburst against Manager Bill Russell in the dugout during Sunday’s game.

Claire also addressed the entire team before the game to talk about both the Astacio incident and a similar blowup involving Russell and pitcher Ismael Valdes on Thursday.

“There is a place to do that kind of thing,” said Claire after meeting with the players, “and clearly the dugout isn’t that place. I love to see emotion from the players. Pedro Astacio has always pitched from the heart.

“But when something flares up in the dugout with the cameras there, you have to pay the consequences. That is not what you want to see. When something happened behind those doors [pointing to the manager’s office], or something happened behind those doors [pointing to the clubhouse], I had no problem with that.

“I want people to be emotional. I’m emotional. When the team is struggling, I would rather the players be emotional instead of passive.”

Astacio was fined an undisclosed amount by the team.

*

While the Astacio and Valdes incidents were the first of their kind for Russell in his brief managerial reign, it is not the first time he has seen emotions erupt on a Dodger ballclub.

He was the shortstop in 1978 when Steve Garvey and Don Sutton had their infamous fight in the Dodger clubhouse. And, said Russell, those weren’t the only confrontations while Tommy Lasorda was the manager.

“While Tommy was hugging everybody,” Russell said, “players were fighting among themselves in the clubhouse. He wasn’t even around. We handled it ourselves.”

TONIGHT’S GAME

DODGERS’ ISMAEL VALDES (3-7, 3.03 ERA) vs. ASTROS’ SHANE REYNOLDS (4-6, 4.04 ERA)

Dodger Stadium, 7 p.m.

TV--Fox Sports West 2. Radio--KABC (790), KWKW (1330).

* UPDATE: Dodger second baseman Wilton Guerrero is expected to be back in the lineup tonight, having served an eight-game suspension for using a corked bat. Valdes will be making his first appearance on the mound since Manager Bill Russell shoved him in the dugout in their confrontation Thursday, when Valdes was hit for in the fifth inning after having given up five runs, four of them earned, on seven hits by the San Francisco Giants. Valdes lost that game, his second consecutive defeat. But in his last 10 starts, Valdes has a 2.80 earned-run average, having given up 19 earned runs in 61 innings. But the Dodgers scored only 24 runs for him in that span. Valdes has struck out five or more batters in five of his last seven starts to give him 38 in 45 2/3 innings. Reynolds hasn’t won since beating the Florida Marlins on May 2. Since then, he is 0-4 in seven starts with a 6.08 ERA.