Dodgers Dancing to 3/4 Time : Baseball: Third victory in series against Pirates, by 5-1 score, is music to players’ ears.

Standing in center field before the Pittsburgh Pirates batted in the ninth inning unday, with his Dodgers holding 5-1 lead over the team with baseball’s best record, Brett Butler enjoyed thoughts of the future.

Thoughts about returning here next month for the playoffs. Thoughts about the Pirates worrying about those playoffs after losing three out of four games to the Dodgers during the weekend.

An old rock song began playing over the public address system at Three Rivers Stadium, and Butler couldn’t help himself.

He began to dance.

“Why not?” Butler said after the Dodgers won, 5-1, before 28,949. “I was thinking how great it was to come in here and do what we just did . . . then this great song came on. I just had to move.”

Standing in right field, Mitch Webster watched Butler and shrugged.

“Seems like everybody I have ever played with in this game is crazy,” Webster said.

But perhaps nobody is looser right now than the first-place Dodgers, who even had fun following the progress of the Atlanta Braves, who staged another comeback victory to remain one-half game behind.

After Kal Daniels’ three-run pinch double in the eighth inning--the Dodgers’ second important pinch hit of the game--his teammates looked at the scoreboard and smiled.

“We were saying, ‘Wonder what the Braves are thinking now, seeing us put up that five-spot,’ ” Butler said.

“But then . . . the Braves came back on the Mets and we were saying, ‘Man, bet the Braves are wondering what we are thinking right now.’ ”

After Steve Wilson and Tim Crews combined to close out Mike Morgan’s one-run, eight-hit performance, the Dodgers weren’t thinking about much other than celebrating, and with good reason.

They had won as many road games in three days--three--as they had in the previous 10 days on the road. And in one weekend, they had the same number of victories on artificial turf as in their previous 17 games on turf.

--Lenny Harris was celebrating by throwing pieces of watermelon at Darryl Strawberry, who drove in a first-inning run with a single that helped soften the blow of his three-for-16 series.

“That’s not all he’s going to get in his face,” Harris joked.

--Alfredo Griffin, who broke a 1-1 tie with a run-scoring single in the sixth inning after Webster led off with a pinch double, celebrated with a warning.

If he keeps playing so well--he is batting .269 since coming off the disabled list Sept. 1--he might wear that ugly protective mask next season.

“The only problem is fans are calling me Bill Laimbeer,” Griffin said. “I think there’s a difference between us.”

--Wilson, who protected a 2-1 lead while working out of jam for a second consecutive game, celebrated by wearing a thick jacket in 85-degree heat.

While retiring pinch-hitter Lloyd McClendon on a grounder and Orlando Merced on a fly ball with runners on first and second in the seventh, Wilson worked up a tremendous sweat.

“I sweat so much, I wore the jacket so I wouldn’t catch cold when I finally stopped pitching,” Wilson said.

Tom Lasorda, Dodger manager, thinks Wilson’s biggest problem is one of identity.

“Guy thinks he’s Lefty Grove,” Lasorda said.

--Daniels celebrated with a huge sigh of relief. Not because he got his first pinch-hit of the season, but because he even made it to home plate.

He did not start because of his sore knees, and was not really thinking about playing when he walked back into the clubhouse to cool off during the eighth inning.

“Then I hear everybody shouting my name, so I turn around and start running back to the dugout--and I run right into the clubhouse man,” Daniels said.

“Then I start running to the field, they are out there trying to stall, and then I realize my bat is in the clubhouse.”

Batting for Griffin with the bases loaded, he fell behind 0-and-2 against reliever Roger Mason, then took three balls before driving a pitch into the right-center field gap for a bases-clearing double.

“You know, I think the Pirates will remember some of this stuff,” Webster said.

“How their guys did with runners in scoring position. What some of our guys did. They’ll remember the little things in this series.”

Such as how the Dodger pitching, which held the Pirates to two runs in the last 19 innings of this series, with one run scoring on an infield hit and the other run on a single by a pitcher.

“The main thing is, we let the Pirates know this weekend that we are coming back here,” Strawberry said.

“And we are coming back.”

* KEEPING PACE: The Braves come back to beat the Mets, 7-5, and stay a half-game behind the Dodgers. C13