Yeager Puts the Arm on Cardinals : He Stops Base-Stealers, Drives in 2 Runs in Dodger Win

ST. LOUIS —  Steve Yeager came crawling out from wherever the Dodgers keep him, the bones cracking and the screws in his leg creaking, and made Cardinal Manager Whitey Herzog a believer in the afterlife Friday night.

“He’ll be throwing like that when he’s in his coffin,” Herzog said in admiration, after Yeager, unlimbering his right arm following 17 days of inactivity, gunned down the only two St. Louis runners who dared to challenge him in the Dodgers’ 4-1 win before 39,296 at Busch Stadium. He also drove in two runs in a game for the first time this season with a seventh-inning single and a ninth-inning sacrifice fly.

At 37, Yeager may not be what he used to be, but he hasn’t yet outlived his usefulness to the Dodgers.

“Rabbit season, rabbit season,” R.J. Reynolds said with a squeal in tribute to Yeager, who bagged pinch-runner Randy Hunt in the seventh and then nailed the biggest prize of all, rookie Vince Coleman, in the eighth to help reliever Tom Niedenfuer protect a 3-1 lead.

“He probably still has as good an arm as anybody,” said Dodger starter Jerry Reuss, who found his own way of shutting down the Cardinal running game--he kept them off base by allowing only one hit until loading the bases on two hits and a walk in the sixth.

“He’s very good defensively. If he can play that role for a couple of years, he can extend his career.”

That’s a role Yeager, who shattered a bone in his left leg in a home-plate collision last September, has played sparingly while watching Mike Scioscia do the bulk of the catching.

“Mike’s done a super job,” Yeager said. “I sit around and play insurance.

“This game has three sides--the offensive side, defensive side and cheerleading side. I root for my teammates.”

It’s true, Yeager makes a lot of noise when he’s not playing. But it’s hardly of the sis-boom-bah variety. More like, bah, humbug.

“Boomer’s like one starting pitcher around here,” Reuss said. “When he plays, he’s quiet. When he doesn’t, he’s less quiet.”

Yeager was the silencer for Coleman. The Cardinals’ rookie may have a league-leading 55 steals-- more than six entire National League teams--but he’s just another nuisance to Yeager, who has thrown out 14 of 18 runners this season and is 2 for 2 against Coleman.

That’s one reason that Yeager, who isn’t supposed to start against a right-hander, did so Friday night against Danny Cox. And that’s why he may be back in there today against Kurt Kepshire, another right-hander.

“I hope I can get the hell out of bed tomorrow,” said Yeager with a grin. “I don’t know if these old legs can operate.”

There have been times, because of his .170 average, that the Dodgers wondered if Yeager’s bat had been rendered inoperative. But Friday night, he had a run-scoring single in the seventh off Cox and a sacrifice fly in the ninth off Neil Allen.

Asked if he was happy to get a hit off a right-hander, Yeager said: “I was happy to get a hit off anybody.

“I’ve been behind because of therapy (for his knee). This is like the end of spring training for me.”

The Cardinals, who had won eight straight at home and whose 25-10 home record was the best in the league, scored first when Coleman led off with a triple and came home on Willie McGee’s sacrifice fly.

“There’s too ways to keep from worrying about him stealing--shoot, I forgot his name,” Reuss said.

Coleman, he was reminded.

“One is to get him out. The other is to let him hit a triple. That eliminates all the worry.”

Reuss didn’t give the Cardinals anything to hit until the sixth, when he got into that bases-loaded mess, at which point Niedenfuer threw one pitch to get out of it, first baseman Greg Brock making a nice play on Terry Pendleton’s grounder down the line.

The Dodgers tied it in the top of the sixth on singles by Steve Sax and Reuss and Dave Anderson’s sacrifice fly.

They went ahead in the seventh on triples by Pedro Guerrero and Reynolds and Yeager’s single.

Guerrero, who swung at a 3-and-0 pitch, might have had a chance at an inside-the-park home run, but he stayed at the plate to admire the towering drive he hit off the 414-foot sign in dead-center field.

Would you prefer that he run, Manager Tom Lasorda was asked.

“He was told about it,” Lasorda said.

Niedenfuer, who hasn’t allowed a run in his last nine appearances, and Ken Howell then polished off the Cardinals, with the win going to Niedenfuer. The booster shot went to Yeager, who’s not ready to be buried yet.

“I’d like to stay right here and finish my career, play a couple of more years,” Yeager said.

“But who knows what lurks in the shadows? Maybe they won’t want me when the screws come out.”

Dodger Notes The Dodgers avoided a potentially disastrous fourth inning when plate umpire Bob Engel ruled that Terry Pendleton ran out of the basepaths, forcing Jerry Reuss’ wild throw on a tapper to the right of the mound. Reuss threw the ball into right field and R.J. Reynolds threw it to second base, apparently forgetting about base-runner Tito Landrum, who headed home with what would have been an easy run. Engel didn’t call Pendleton out until the play was over, which had an anxious Manager Tom Lasorda charging the plate until Engel waved him off. “I don’t know (why Engel waited),” Lasorda said. “He said, ‘I’ll handle it.’ I said, ‘OK, fine.’ ” . . . Lasorda, when asked if he mentioned Reynolds’ throw to him, grinned slyly. “Ask him,” Lasorda said. Earlier, Reynolds made a nice running catch on Landrum’s ball to the track. . . . Tom Niedenfuer’s numbers in his last nine appearances: 0 runs, 6 hits, 3 walks and 18 strikeouts in 17 innings. Catcher Steve Yeager also credited Niedenfuer with an assist when Yeager threw out Vince Coleman in the eighth. “He did his job,” Yeager said. “He threw the ball over there a couple of times, went right after (batter Willie) McGee and threw me a great pitch to handle.”