National Honor Upheld Conine’s Shot Decides Home Run Derby In 3-2 N.L. Win Amid Nomo-Mania

They were so inspired by the brilliance of Hideo Nomo, they almost went out and made themselves the victims of the first All-Star Game no-hitter.

But then those neversay-“Sayonara” National League All-Stars arose Tuesday night to win their second straight All-Star Game in very unlikely fashion.

They got three hits all night off seven American League pitchers. But all three of those hits were home runs.

And so - on a night when the National League had no singles, no doubles, no triples and nobody left on base - it somehow won anyhow, 3-2. That meant the Phillies’ Heathcliff Slocumb was the winning pitcher. And it also meant the N.L. now has an actual two-game winning streak in the all-unimportant all-star standings, after having lost six in a row.

“The good thing about winning two in a row,” said the N.L.’s Tony Gwynn, “is it keeps everybody off our back.”

After going a record 5-2/3 innings without getting any hits, the N.L. stars then got a sixth-inning homer by Craig Biggio, a seventh-inning homer by Mike Piazza and a game-winning pinch homer in the eighth by Jeff Conine - on the first pitch thrown all night by ex-Phillies disabled-list king Steve Ontiveros. And that was that. Conine was named the game’s MVP.

The N.L. tied the all-star record for fewest hits by a winning team - three. But that was set in the 1952 game in Philadelphia, which was rained out after five innings. So this was a definite feat.

Slocumb got the win with a pivotal seventh-inning performance in which he pitched out of a Carlos Perez mess by striking out Ivan Rodriguez and Jim Edmonds.

About two innings into this game, it looked as if the turning point might have come a week and a half ago. That, of course, was when the National League starting lineup was announced - and had way too many lefthanded hitters.

So Tuesday night, that towering hulk of lefthanded invincibility, Randy Johnson, took the mound and found three straight lefthanded hitters coming to bat in the first inning, with Fred McGriff in the No. 5 hole.

“I’ll tell you who spoiled it for all us lefthanders,” the Padres’ Gwynn said before heading out there. “And that was (John) Kruk. Kruk killed it for us guys with that at-bat (in the ‘93 game). Now people think nobody can get a hit off that guy.

“But I’m not scared. I told Lenny (Dykstra) that if he leads off with a single up the middle, that could open the floodgates. Of course, if he doesn’t, it could be a long night.”

Well, Dykstra didn’t. But he did reach base off Johnson with a walk, which was an achievement in itself. For a while, that was about it for the N.L.’s offensive highlights.

Johnson wound up ripping off two straight hitless innings, with three strikeouts. But his fellow starter, that Nomo fellow, wasn’t too bad, either.

Nomo twisted. And turned. And stared back at the flagpoles. And then dominated the. Two innings. One hit - a first-inning single by Cleveland’s Carlos Baerga. Three whiffs. Been there. Done that.

After two innings, Nomo and Johnson called it a night. And Kevin Appier and Dennis Martinez, the two pitchers who succeeded Johnson, picked up right where the tallest pitcher in history left off, mowing down the next 11 N.L. batters.

Meanwhile, in the fourth, Frank Thomas of the White Sox scrunched a two-run homer.

Martinez carried the A.L. no-hitter two outs into the sixth - when Houston’s Biggio promptly busted up this one with a solo home run.