Harris, Stubbs Give Dodgers Reserve Power

As usual, neither player learned he was in the lineup Sunday afternoon against the San Diego Padres until Dodger coach Bill Russell tapped him on the shoulder a couple of hours before the game.

Lenny Harris looked up and heard he was starting at second base. He grabbed the nearest empty cup.

“I started drinking coffee, lots of coffee,” Harris said.

Franklin Stubbs looked up and heard he was starting in center field, for the first time this season. He shrugged.

“I asked Russell, ‘So what took you guys so long?’ ” Stubbs said.

Different reactions. Same result.

Harris doubled three times and drove in two runs. Stubbs hit his second homer in two games and singled, driving in two runs. Combined with two more home runs by Eddie Murray, these hits helped the Dodgers equal their biggest offensive day of the season as they defeated the Padres, 10-1, before 31,884 fans at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

Thus ended a 10-day trip, during which the Dodgers played 12 games and won half. As a result of 15 hits and Tim Belcher’s four-hit pitching, they feel as ready as ever for a three-game set with the National League West-leading San Francisco Giants, beginning Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium.

They have 12 remaining games with the Giants, who lead them by 12 1/2. The Dodgers need a sweep.

“Put it this way,” Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda said, “I sure as heck would like to do that.”

Mickey Hatcher put it another way.

“This could be the start of a ‘Whether-we’ll-be-back-in-the-World-Series-series,’ ” Hatcher said. “Or something like that.”

A win like Sunday’s can certainly tongue-tie a team, particularly a team that had beaten the Padres only once in eight previous games this season.

While Murray hurried from the clubhouse Sunday without commenting on a streak in which he has three homers and six RBIs in his last 13 at-bats, giving him 12 homers and 59 RBIs overall, Harris and Stubbs stuck around to chat. Reserves love to talk. They never know when they’ll get another chance.

“In Cincinnati, I tried to take charge and I fell on my face,” said Harris, who was part of the July 18 deal that also brought Kal Daniels to the Dodgers for pitcher Tim Leary and infielder Mariano Duncan. “I learned what it took to win . . . and what it takes to lose.

“Here, I understand my role and I know how to take it.”

Thus far, he has taken it very seriously, with seven hits, six RBIs and six runs as a Dodger. With his speed and swing, he could one day fit into this lineup as a starter and leadoff hitter.

“That’s a possibility--I think he’ll be a real good everyday player one day,” Lasorda said after Harris started the Dodgers’ scoring off Ed Whitson (14-7) with a two-run double over center fielder Marvell Wynne’s head in the second inning. Harris doubled again in the sixth inning, then hustled a single into a double in the eighth, later scoring on Daniels’ fly.

It was on that last hit, when he just beat a throw to second base from right fielder Tony Gwynn, that Harris proved he could also talk a good game.

“Bip Roberts tagged me after I got on base, but he started shouting, ‘I got him, I got him,” Harris related. “I said, ‘Bip, just shut up.’ ”

Harris said he realizes the odds are against him becoming a regular second baseman or shortstop here--”We’ve got an All-Star at second (Willie Randolph) and a Gold Glover (Alfredo Griffin) at shortstop, and I know those guys have got to play; there’s nothing I can do about that,” Harris said.

But his natural position is third base. Jeff Hamilton, no doubt, will be watching.

Stubbs, meanwhile, said he has been around too long to worry about a natural position. What’s natural for him, after four years with the Dodgers, is to work at all positions every day and hope for a chance.

“I know how things work around here, and I know I have to be ready for every situation they put me in,” said Stubbs, who has been relegated to reserve duty with the arrival of Murray.

“When I first heard about the trade, I thought I was gone in it,” Stubbs said. “I thought it would be a swap of first basemen. When I realized I was still here, I knew that Eddie likes to play every day. I knew I had to fit in where I could.”

He fit in Sunday with a two-run homer off reliever Dave Leiper in the third. It was Stubbs’ second homer in three plate appearances. He had hit an eighth-inning homer in a 9-4 loss Saturday night. He later singled to finish Sunday with a .284 average and three homers in 74 at-bats, the fewest of any position player who has been with the team all season.

“It’s there, he’s got a lot of big league ability,” Lasorda said of Stubbs. “But of course, he’s got to put it all together.”

That’s what is said about all reserves. For now, Stubbs and Harris can only keep working and waiting for another tap.

“I’m out here early every day taking early batting practice, I shag balls in all fields during regular batting practice,” said Stubbs, who is hitting .387 (12 for 31) as a starter. “If you only get one shot, you got to make it a good one.”

Dodger Notes

Tim Belcher gave up a home run by Benito Santiago and three singles Sunday in improving his record to 8-9 while dropping his earned-run average to 3.11. He also struck out nine, vaulting him over St. Louis’ Jose DeLeon and Atlanta’s John Smoltz and into the National League strikeout lead with 135. With two straight complete-game victories, Belcher is erasing the bad memories of his recent two-week stint in the bullpen. Since rejoining the starting rotation July 16, he is 3-1 with a 2.03 ERA with 33 strikeouts in 31 innings. “That time in the bullpen has affected every start since then,” Belcher said. “I want to reassure myself, Tommy (Lasorda, Dodger Manager) and Fred (Claire, Dodger vice president) that I belong in the rotation. And then I want to put an exclamation point on it.” The right-handed Belcher also used his left arm to help the Dodgers Sunday as he was hit there by Fred Toliver’s pitch in the eighth inning, and later scored on Alfredo Griffin’s grounder.

Eddie Murray is also on a powerful roll. After three long fly-ball outs in Saturday’s 9-4 loss, he hit a two-run homer to center field in his first at-bat Sunday off Padre starter and loser Ed Whitson. In his next at-bat, he ripped a ball down the right-field line that was just a few feet foul of being a homer. Then in his final at-bat in the eighth inning, he homered to right field off reliever Toliver. Before Sunday, Murray had given the Dodgers their last win with a three-run homer Thursday afternoon in Houston. “He’s the kind of guy who can carry a club; he’s done that in the past,” Lasorda said. “But I don’t want him to think that, or feel that he has to do that.” . . . Although the Dodgers nailed Padre ace Whitson with five runs in two innings, he left the game after the second inning because of a blister on the third finger of his pitching hand. Whitson, who has a 2.78 ERA, should be ready for his next start.