"Why not Scioscia? He's big and strong. And he's Italian. Did you ever see an Italian who needed a rest?"
"Yeah," said Joe Ferguson, the Dodger Eye in the Sky. "The guy who built Rome."
Scioscia said the rest can come later.
"I don't feel like I have to save it," he said. "The next three weeks will make or break our season. This is the time to go hard. This was a big swing today. If we'd lost two and Cincinnati had won, they would have been 6 1/2 back. Now, it's 9 1/2."
Someone asked Lasorda if the race were over.
"Come on," he said. "You know better than that."
Later, someone explained to him the mathematics of the race. His response?
"We've got to win tomorrow."
Dodger Notes Ken Landreaux, who started the night 0 for 18, singled on his first at-bat and had three hits in the second game. . . . Bill Madlock sat out the second game because the strained muscle in his left leg was bothering him. . . . Brave ace Rick Mahler (17-14), who was supposed to have pitched Tuesday, was scratched because of a fractured little finger on his right hand. Mahler injured the finger sliding into second base, but the injury did not show on three sets of X-rays before it was finally detected.
