Guerrero Crushes Dodgers : Baseball: He hits two home runs, drives in five and ruins Lasorda’s pregame pep talk.

After nearly injuring their fans with two long home runs, after beating their team with five runs batted in, Pedro Guerrero waited until after the game Thursday night to deliver his final insult to his former Dodger teammates.

“I like to hit against all teams,” said the St. Louis first baseman, shrugging. “The Dodgers are nothing special.”

Imagine that. The Dodgers have changed such that their former bad boy doesn’t even hate them anymore. Won’t even criticize them.

After the Cardinals’ 7-1 victory in front of 27,609 at Dodger Stadium, Guerrero was questioned about the Dodgers’ recent problems.

“You go ask them,” he said. “What do I care?”

Their problem Thursday was him, with a little help from Dodger starter Tim Belcher.

Guerrero singled in a run in the first inning, one of four consecutive Cardinal singles to start the game. Then, with Belcher trailing, 3-0, in the seventh, Guerrero followed two walks by driving a fastball into the left-field seats.

After the Dodgers had finally scored a run off starter and winner Jose DeLeon in the seventh on Juan Samuel’s RBI single, Guerrero struck again against reliever Tim Crews in the ninth with a home run to left on an 0-and-2 fastball.

Batting .238 when he entered the game, Guerrero got well quickly, and is now hitting .265 with five homers and 18 runs batted in.

Since being traded to the Cardinals on Aug. 16, 1988, Guerrero has loved to see his teammates. In 53 at-bats against them, he is hitting .358 with 12 RBIs.

“I don’t know what he thinks about us, ask him,” said Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda. “But I can tell you how I felt about tonight. And I did not feel too good.”

He felt angry enough to lodge a sixth-inning protest against the Cardinals because DeLeon was wearing a bandage, an apparent violation of the rule that prohibits a pitcher from wearing anything on his pitching fingers. The bandage was there because DeLeon’s fingers were bleeding due to the way he grips his curveball.

“I don’t see how we can win it,” Lasorda said of the protest.

The Dodgers were hoping this night in particular would go a little differently. For the first time in seven years that Orel Hershiser was not able to play, Lasorda spent much of his pregame talk letting everyone know that his team could survive the loss of its ace pitcher to shoulder surgery. This, even though the Dodgers also do not have, because of injuries, ace reliever Jay Howell, or third baseman Jeff Hamilton, or inspirational Kirk Gibson.

“In everybody’s lifetime there comes a time when the door closes on you,” Lasorda preached. “If you are so concerned with the door that’s closing, you’ll never find the one that is open. We will find the one that is open.”

One day without Hershiser, they are still looking.

In 6 1/3 innings, Belcher allowed six runs on 11 hits and a wild pitch that scored a run.

Belcher fell to 1-2 with a 4.45 earned-run average. He has as many wild pitches--two--as the rest of the staff combined.

Since he threw 110 pitches in a shutout of the San Diego Padres on the season’s second night--30 more pitches than the rest of the league’s starters were throwing--he is 0-2 with a 6.51 ERA.

“I just ran out of gas,” Belcher said Thursday. “After those two walks, put up the red flag.”

The walks, to Ozzie Smith and Willie McGee, occurred with one out in the seventh and the Dodgers trailing 3-0. As Guerrero stepped to the plate, out to the mound ran pitching coach Ron Perranoski. He has had more productive visits.

Perranoski was barely back to the dugout when Guerrero was blasting the ball over the fence. Left fielder Kal Daniels took two steps and stared.

“We talked about whether to throw him a slider away, or go after him with a fastball,” Belcher said. “(Mike) Scioscia and I wanted to go after him with a fastball. So we did.”

Belcher sighed. “But the fastball was right up where he could hit it. Pete (Guerrero) impressed in a lot different ways when he was here. And one of those ways was, the man always comes to play.”

Especially against you-know-who.