National League Notebook : Valenzuela’s 8 Walks Are a Record

ST. LOUIS — Fernando Valenzuela set a playoff record by walking eight Cardinals Monday.

But after the first two Cardinals, Willie McGee and Ozzie Smith, walked and scored on Tommy Herr’s double, Valenzuela stranded seven St. Louis base-runners, typical of his history of postseason pitching.

Valenzuela struck out McGee, the league’s batting champion, twice with runners on base Monday and has fanned him five times in two games.

“I got myself out a lot,” McGee said. “He didn’t throw me a strike. But who would when you’ve got a guy who’s going to swing at balls in those situations.”

Valenzuela, who gave up four hits in eight innings, said he told pitching coach Ron Perranoski that he was tired.

“He said that he had thrown too many pitches and it would be better going with a fresher guy,” said Jaime Jarrin, translating for Valenzuela.

Valenzuela, on the outcome: “I am not upset. We tried our best. It was close game, and you have to give credit to their bullpen. (Ken) Dayley did a great job.”

Greg Brock, whose only hit in 10 playoff at-bats was the home run he hit in Game 2, was lifted for pinch-hitter Enos Cabell under bizarre circumstances in the fourth inning.

Brock, who had tapped to the mound in his first at-bat, came up with two runners on and one out in the fourth and drove a long foul on Forsch’s first pitch. Cardinal Manager Whitey Herzog immediately decided to change pitchers, summoning left-hander Ken Dayley, and Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda switched to Enos Cabell.

That may have been the first time this season a Dodger was taken out of a game for hitting the ball too well.

“I got the pitcher and myself on one swing,” Brock said. “If it had been fair, I would have knocked him out and kept me in.”

Cabell hit the ball sharply but directly at third baseman Terry Pendleton, who turned a double play that ended the inning.

Vince Coleman, the Cardinal rolled by a tarp on Sunday, missed his second straight game Monday, but made an appearance in the interview room.

“I wouldn’t wish what happened to me on my worst enemy,” Coleman said. “The worst part of it was they had to roll the tarp back over my leg. Thankfully, there are no broken bones or cartilage tears.

“When I went home last night, I dreamed about it and the dream was that the tarp went over my head. I’m just glad they were able to stop it when they did.”

Orel Hershiser, who will pitch Game 6 for the Dodgers on Wednesday, was asked in the pregame interview session how he reconciles his Christian faith with his aggressiveness on the mound.

“You don’t have to be a wimp to be a Christian,” said Hershiser, who thought a moment and then added, “that’s going to be a nationwide quote.”

Steve Sax, who flipped his bat after striking out in the fifth, was splashed by a fan with the water that had gathered on top of the Dodger dugout.

Sax said he wasn’t sure if he’d been sprayed by beer or water--”Something made my eyes burn,” he said--but his first reaction was to attempt to climb into the stands until security people grabbed him.

Mike Bertani, the Cardinals’ director of tickets and stadium operations, said the fan was not apprehended, disappearing under the stands before security officials could reach him.

Sax, however, was under the impression that the fan had gone to jail. “I hope he likes it there,” Sax said.

N.L. Notes

Ken Landreaux, who had two more singles Monday, remains the leading Dodger hitter with seven hits in 14 at-bats. He has scored four runs and driven in two. . . . Bill Madlock, whose two-run homer accounted for all of the Dodger runs Monday, waved off reporters after the game. Madlock may have been upset about the negative notices he received after missing a ground ball in the Cardinals’ nine-run inning on Sunday. . . . Tommy Herr, who doubled in two runs Monday, now has four doubles and five RBIs in the series. . . . Tom Lasorda, on Ozzie Smith’s game-winning homer: “Naturally, I’m dumbstruck. In all my years in baseball, you learn one thing: Never expect the expected to happen.” . . . The home team has now won each of the last 13 games played in the National League playoffs dating back to Game 1 of the 1983 playoffs, which the Phillies won, 1-0, over the Dodgers in Los Angeles.