Word: gooden
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...perhaps the greatest thing about the end of the strike is that all the fabulous seasons will not be lost. So Dwight Gooden can keep his winning streak going, Don Mattingly can drive in 150 runs, Vince Coleman can steal 100 bases as a rookie, and Wade Boggs can get 250 hits...
...Mike Scioscia, a contact hitter. "The bases are still drunk," Catcher Gary Carter calls out a reminder. "Let's get the double play," barks Third Baseman Ray Knight. Joey Amalfitano, the Dodger coach at third base, wigwags some semaphore to Scioscia, who flicks his helmet to signal message received. Gooden looks at Knight and mouths, "Squeeze bunt?" Knight looks at Amalfitano and says, "Too obvious." At first base, Keith Hernandez gives thought to visiting Gooden, but reconsiders. "What am I going to tell him? Bear down?" Bearing down, Gooden makes Scioscia foul out to Carter on the first delivery...
...Valenzuela seven springs ago in Mexico. He went there to observe a skinny infielder, but could not help noticing an ample lefthanded breaking-ball pitcher with more than a teenager's command. "Both these guys / seem to have been born with poise and control," he says. In addition, Gooden has a 94-m.p.h. fast ball in the eighth inning...
...pressed into the lineup by injuries. Maybe because he spent three seasons in Japan, his hitting theories are serenely uncomplicated. "A lot of players think at the plate," he says. "I just hack. I go up there, I see the ball, I hit it." What he will see from Gooden, if he can see them, are all fast balls, and all strikes. Catcher Carter stopped proposing anything else after Gooden shook off two curves. "If he wants to throw something you don't want him to throw," Manager Johnson has advised Carter, "try it his way for a while...
...fouls those off, Whitfield finally strikes out on the fifth. After nine pitches, without ever leaving the strike zone, the Mets' emergency ends and the Dodgers' begins. In the top of the ninth, Valenzuela also loads the bases with no outs. But they are emptied by singles that include Gooden's third of the game. The final score is 4-1. "That's the first time in my career that I ever saw a pitcher fire up the offense," muses Hernandez afterward. He refers to Gooden's pitching, not his hitting. "Oh, I love to hit," Gooden says. "When...