Dodgers Not Bothered By a Red Menace : Baseball: Morgan wins his first game since All-Star break as L.A. takes three of four and drops Cincinnati 8 1/2 back, 6-4.

The aura of a defending World Series champion, drifting gradually away for four months, finally vanished Thursday, right before the eyes of a Dodger team unafraid to crow.

“The heck with the Cincinnati Reds,” Kal Daniels said after the Dodgers won for the third consecutive time, 6-4, before 37,581 fans at Riverfront Stadium. “What does this do to the Reds? I don’t know and I don’t care.”

In a series the Reds thought they needed to dominate, the Dodgers took three out of four games to turn the former champions into a third-place team, 8 1/2 games back with 56 to play.

If the Dodgers go merely 28-27 for the rest of the season, the Reds must go 37-19, a .661 pace, to have a shot at reclaiming their title.

After receiving good starting pitching from Mike Morgan, fine play from reserves Gary Carter and Mitch Webster and a great throw from Brett Butler, the Dodgers were speaking as if the game marked the end of a brief championship era.

“You could see by the way that they swung their bats today that they think they are out of it,” Daniels said. “They are not aggressive like they once were. They were chasing first pitches, hitting weak little ground balls.

“Nineteen-ninety-one is a new year. You can’t live in the past. The Reds didn’t better themselves, and look what happened. No one is rolling over (dead) for them because they were the world champions.”

Butler concurred: “For the Reds, this really does seem like writing on the wall.”

For the Dodgers, it was not merely a victory that increased their lead to 4 1/2 games over Atlanta, but a rebirth of the style of play that has helped them hold sole possession of first place for the last 81 days.

They beat out four infield grounders among their 11 hits. They turned three double plays. And they acted as if they had no idea four starters were missing.

Slumping Eddie Murray was rested for the first time since June 2, a span of 56 games, and Carter did fine in his second start at first base. He hit a ground-rule double that scored the Dodgers’ first run against nemesis Tom Browning, and missed only one throw in the dirt on an error by shortstop Jose Offerman.

“Did you see me trying to block that ball like a catcher?” Carter said, smiling. “But then you also saw me stretch to catch a few balls, just like Harmon Killebrew.”

Daniels also was rested, enabling Webster to make only his third start since joining the team in a trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates on July 3. It was Webster’s two-out single that gave the Dodgers a 3-0 lead in the fifth inning and eventually chased Browning.

“I have been on the bench so long, my rear end hurt,” Webster said. “But you can’t say that I’ve been collecting splinters. I’m too smart for that. I’ve been sitting on towels.”

The middle of the Dodger infield was also missing for the third consecutive game because of injuries to Alfredo Griffin and Juan Samuel. But second baseman Lenny Harris completed a six-for-nine series with two hits and several good plays in the field. And despite Offerman’s second error in three starts, he collected a hit and scored a run.

“This just shows you can win three straight games without your starting second baseman and shortstop,” Manager Tom Lasorda said. “If you’re going to win, you have to play everybody.”

And fool everybody, which is what happened on Butler’s second-inning play that set the tone for the game.

With Chris Sabo on first base and one out, Bill Doran hit a line drive to medium center field. Butler raced in, caught it, twisted his body and threw to first. The ball reached Carter on the fly, allowing him to tag Sabo, who had wandered off the base because, after all, nobody tries that play.

“Yeah, I think they were shocked,” Butler said, then smiled. “Every once in a while it’s nice to see my old arm come back.”

The throw ended the inning, and the Reds didn’t threaten again until the first of Paul O’Neill’s two two-run home runs pulled them within 3-2 after five innings.

But then, in a 20-minute half-inning that completed the Reds’ fall, the Dodgers scored three runs in the sixth on an error, a wild pitch and a fly ball against relievers Tim Layana, Gino Minutelli and Milt Hill.

“I don’t know if it’s a lack of playing hard or a lack of desire, but we’re just lacking something big-time,” Red pitcher Jose Rijo said. “We’re not just losing, we’re not even looking like a major league team.”

No Dodger victory would be complete without good starting pitching, this time provided by Morgan, who gave up two runs in 6 1/3 innings while earning his 10th victory and first since the All-Star break. Morgan, whose 2.46 earned-run average ranks him among the National League leaders, refused to speak with the media afterward.

But the Dodger starters’ cumulative statistics speak for themselves. In the past 15 games, they have pitched six or more innings 12 times, with an ERA of 2.20.