Dreifort Starting to Please Dodgers

Reliever or starter?

That was the only question the Dodgers ever had about Darren Dreifort. They never doubted his velocity or his determination. They only wondered how best to utilize it all.

When Todd Worrell retired in the off-season, the Dodgers could have made Dreifort the closer.

Instead, they put him in the starting rotation. It wasn’t easy at first. He would often overpower hitters his first time through the lineup, but then the hitters would strike back the second and third time through the order.

If there even was a third time.

He was a starting pitcher with a reliever’s mentality.

No more.

Not Monday night at Dodger Stadium where Dreifort, in arguably his best performance in Dodger blue, looked as if he’d been a starter his whole career, combining with reliever Jeff Shaw on a one-hitter to lead the Dodgers to a 2-0 victory over the Cincinnati Reds in front of a crowd of 35,775.

“It’s going to take time,” said Dreifort’s catcher, Charles Johnson, “but. . . . he’s going to be devastating.”

Dreifort (6-8) gave up a second-inning double to Willie Greene, fifth-inning walks to Bret Boone and Paul Konerko and that was it. Dreifort struck out seven in eight innings and permitted only two balls other than Greene’s to reach the outfield.

How dominating was Dreifort? Cincinnati Manager Jack McKeon said it best.

“He made our hitters look sick,” McKeon said. “He had our hitters tied up in knots. We’ve got to get them going again. They went south.”

In the ninth inning, with Dreifort finally out of there, the Reds tried to get well against a familiar face, Shaw, who was traded by Cincinnati to the Dodgers for Konerko and pitcher Dennis Reyes less than three weeks ago.

But the Reds didn’t fare any better against Shaw, who struck out the side to pick up his 26th save.

“Darren pitched so great,” Shaw said, “that I didn’t want to mess it up.”

Cincinnati starter Steve Parris (1-1) pitched pretty well himself, shutting out the Dodgers through the first six innings.

Raul Mondesi ignited the breakthrough seventh with a single to center. With two out and Mondesi at second, the Reds elected to walk Matt Luke, who had hit a pair of homers against the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday.

That brought up rookie third baseman Adrian Beltre, who entered the game hitting .212, but was hitting .333 with men on base over his previous 12 games.

This time he hit the very first pitch from Parris over the head of shortstop Pokey Reese. It landed safely in left-center, allowing Mondesi to come home with the only run the Dodgers would need.

“It was a slider,” Beltre said. “I looked for that pitch because he got me out with that before.”

Said a disheartened Parris, “As soon as I threw it, I knew it wasn’t the pitch I wanted. It’s frustrating. I made some pretty good pitches for six and two-thirds innings and left a hanger.”

Parris didn’t do any better against the next hitter, Johnson, who also singled to drive in Luke and give the Dodgers a small cushion.

From then on it was up to Dreifort and Shaw.

It was the third combined one-hitter for the Dodgers since moving to Los Angeles. Johnny Podres and Larry Sherry had one in 1963 at Houston, and Alejandro Pena and Tom Niedenfuer teamed up for one in 1986 at Cincinnati.

There was only one negative statistic on a night when the Dodgers moved back above .500 at 50-49. Outfielder Gary Sheffield went zero for four and had his streak of reaching base safely end at 31 games.

But this was not a night for Dodger negatives. It was Dreifort’s night.

His pitching coach, Charlie Hough, was asked if the right-hander has learned how to be a starter.

“Hopefully,” Hough said, “he’ll be learning forever.”