Gang’s All There for Dodgers : Baseball: Morgan beats the Cubs, 6-4. With Strawberry, Murray and Daniels in the starting lineup, L.A. is 23-13.

The three leading men have been together only three months, but already they have memorized each other’s lines.

Darryl Strawberry, Eddie Murray and Kal Daniels were hired to play for the Dodgers, but they spend more time playing off each other.

This was proved again Monday when the middle of the Dodgers’ order combined for a home run, two doubles, four runs batted and four runs in the Dodgers’ 6-4 victory over the Chicago Cubs before 42,767 at Dodger Stadium.

Strawberry, the No. 3 hitter, walked and scored a run.

Murray, the cleanup hitter, doubled twice, drove in two runs and scored two runs.

Daniels, the No. 5 hitter, hit a two-run home run.

The victory gave the first-place Dodgers their biggest lead of the season in the National League West--four games--but it also fattened a more revealing statistic.

When Strawberry, Murray and Daniels are in the starting lineup together, the Dodgers are 23-13. When they are not in the lineup at the same time, the Dodgers are 14-12.

When those three are playing together, they have a combined .266 average, higher than their combined season average of .261.

They have combined for 19 homers, three shy of their season combined total of 22.

And they have combined for 87 runs batted in, which is 86% of their total of 101 RBIs.

“You bet we depend on each other,” said Daniels, who has four homers and seven RBIs in the last eight games. “Eddie affects Straw, and I affect Eddie. We get working together and. . . . I don’t want to say we have the best middle order in the league, but I won’t say that it’s not the best.”

Monday night, it was good enough so that Mike Morgan could give up nine hits and four runs and still survive for his seventh victory, five short of his career high.

Tim Crews earned his fourth save, one short of his career high, by retiring Chico Walker with a runner on first base after a brief ninth-inning rally.

Morgan was unhappy that he lost a complete game after getting two quick outs to start the ninth, but he has learned to savor every victory.

“I wanted to stay in the game with a four-run lead, but it was out of my hands,” said Morgan, who watched his earned-run average increase to 2.54 when Crews gave up a two-run single to Shawon Dunston before retiring Walker.

“But a win is a win, whether it is 15-1 or 1-0,” Morgan added.

Nobody keeps statistics on hits that deflate the opponents, but the middle of the Dodgers’ order combined for two in helping the Dodgers to their fourth victory in five games against the Cubs this season.

It started in the first inning against loser Shawn Boskie (3-6), after Brett Butler had singled. It was the 25th time in 61 starts that Butler has led off the game by reaching base. Perhaps for this reason, the Dodgers have 55 first-inning runs in 62 games this season, and are 19-6 in those games.

Butler was forced at second base by Juan Samuel, then Strawberry drew a walk.

A couple of pitches later, Murray, batting left-handed, doubled toward the left-field line, scoring both runners. Murray has seven RBIs in the past three games.

Boskie gave up an RBI single by Lenny Harris to finish the first, then yielded a leadoff homer by Juan Samuel in the sixth inning and a double by Murray before leaving the game.

Enter Chuck McElroy, who gave up the first grand slam of Harris’ career last week at Chicago. On his third pitch, Daniels hit McElroy even harder, driving the ball more than 400 feet into the darkness over the center-field fence for his eighth home run.

“I knew the ball was hit hard, but this being Dodger Stadium at night, I didn’t know if it would get out,” said Daniels, who is tied with Samuel for the team lead with eight homers. “But man, I guess I really did hit that thing.”

Working with a lead most of the game, Morgan was able to keep the Cubs off balance, holding them to four singles until Dunston led off the eighth inning with his seventh homer.

“Morgan is always tough,” Dunston said. “He’s like their No. 5 pitcher, but he can pitch for anyone.”

Morgan struggled with two out in the ninth inning, giving up singles by Andre Dawson and Luis Salazar and a double by Rick Wilkins.