Hershiser Keeps Shutout Streak Over Cardinals : Baseball: He works six innings as string reaches 12 1/3. Harris beats St. Louis with a run-scoring single in the ninth, 2-1.

Lenny Harris, nearly knocked out during a fielding collision two innings earlier, drove in the winning run with a ninth-inning single to give the Dodgers a 2-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals Friday.

Before a Dodger Stadium crowd of 39,041 that included President Bush and baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent, the Dodgers loaded the bases in the ninth on a Juan Samuel single, Darryl Strawberry double and a walk to Eddie Murray.

After Kal Daniels struck out, Harris slapped a single against Scott Terry (1-1) barely out of the reach of second baseman Geronimo Pena.

The victory went to reliever Jay Howell (1-2) as the Dodgers picked up a game on Atlanta in the National League West, expanding their division lead to three games.

Orel Hershiser, bidding for his first Dodger Stadium victory since September, 1989, fought through six shutout innings with bulldog-like tenacity but got no decision when the Cardinals tied the score, 1-1, in the eighth.

Hershiser’s counterpart, Jose DeLeon, also pitched well enough to win, holding the Dodgers to a run and two hits through six innings--also good for no decision.

The Dodgers gave Hershiser a 1-0 lead in the second inning on consecutive one-out singles by Daniels and Harris and a sacrifice fly by Mike Scioscia against Jose DeLeon.

Hershiser battled through challenges in nearly every inning before being replaced by Tim Crews before the seventh.

Using 82 pitches, Hershiser threw six shutout innings, giving him a string of 12 1/3 in two games against the Cardinals. He lowered his earned-run average to 2.35--but not without a battle.

Cardinal leadoff batters reached base in five of the first six innings and St. Louis had men in scoring position in each of the first five. Twice Hershiser faced former teammate Pedro Guerrero, the Cardinals’ most productive batter, with men on third and two out.

In the third inning Ray Lankford--who got three of the six hits against Hershiser--led off with a double and worked his way to third, Guerrero grounding to third to end the threat. A similar situation in the fifth produced similar results, Lankford leading off with a bunt single and stealing second, reaching third on a double play only to be stranded by Guerrero again on a groundout to third.

The Dodgers had little success against DeLeon, who gave up the two hits in the second and then retired the last seven batters he faced before leaving for a pinch-hitter in the seventh. This was the third time this season DeLeon has seen his team shut out while he was pitching.

With Crews pitching in the seventh, the Dodgers nearly lost a quarter of their everyday lineup. With two out, Harris, playing third, and Daniels, playing left, converged while chasing Ozzie Smith’s foul pop down the left-field line. Harris made an outstanding over-the-shoulder catch, then the two collided. Both were down for a minute and appeared shaken, but stayed in the game.

The Cardinals finally scored in the eighth, Guerrero getting a single, pinch-runner Geronimo Pena stealing second and Todd Zeile driving in the tying run with a two-out single against Crews.