Just a Game They Knew They’d Win : Baseball: Dodgers get early lead and beat Astros, 4-3. Players criticize fans for booing Gross for not running out a grounder.

You would have thought friends from college were coming over for the weekend. Not the Atlanta Braves.

Preparing for the Dodgers’ biggest series of the season Thursday, Stan Javier threw a bucket of water on a promotional car as it drove past the dugout.

Roger McDowell then threw water on the Houston Astros’ eighth-inning rally and called it fun.

Darryl Strawberry hit a home run he termed cheap. Lenny Harris hit a home run, then joked about how he will spend the weekend on the bench.

Instead of inciting fans to the fever pitch reached by thousands of tomahawk-toting folks in Atlanta last weekend, the Dodgers criticized their fans for booing pitcher Kevin Gross.

And yet, they managed to ensure that they would begin this weekend in first place by defeating a lineup of anonymous Houston Astros, 4-3, before 25,850 at Dodger Stadium. That kept Los Angeles half a game ahead of the Atlanta Braves, who later in the evening defeated the San Diego Padres, 4-2.

After their victory, the Dodgers were asked if they were going to rush home to watch the Atlanta-San Diego game.

“Am I going to watch the Braves? C’mon!” Strawberry said, walking out of the clubhouse with a smile. “I’m not worried about the Braves. Remember, they have to come in here .”

Orel Hershiser, who will start Saturday in the second game of the series, explained.

“It’s not that we don’t get excited,” he said. “It’s just that we know when to get excited. When we take the field against the Braves, that’s when we’ll get excited.”

That moment will occur tonight in the first game of a series that could determine the championship of the National League West division. When the teams part ways Monday, the Dodgers will have 11 games remaining, the Braves 12 and none against each other.

“But this weekend won’t do it. This won’t end it. . . . Remember, we still have to go up north, way up north,” Brett Butler said, shivering for effect. “We still have to end the season in Candlestick Park (San Francisco) while the Astros are playing in Atlanta. That’s what it is all going to come down to.

“Somebody will get the edge this weekend, but there is still a lot of baseball left.”

While winning their fourth consecutive game since losing two of three in Atlanta last weekend, the Dodgers seemed most concerned with defending winning pitcher Gross. He should need no defense because he allowed only two runs in seven innings in his third start since May 25.

Even so, fans booed him in the fifth inning when he did not run out a routine grounder to third base with the Dodgers leading, 4-1. Gross waved disgustedly at the fans, then tossed his helmet into the air.

He was still angry afterward and would not comment, but his teammates, some of whom have already chided Dodger fans for being too laid back, lit into the crowd.

“I think (the fans) were brutal,” Butler said. “It’s like there are some people there who don’t understand what the game is all about. Kevin is a pitcher who should be more concerned with pitching, not hitting. He is not a hitter.

“You just do not boo a pitcher who is trying to conserve his energy by not running hard to first base. You just don’t do it.”

Added Hershiser: “I thought that the fans were totally wrong, but of course the fans were totally right because they bought tickets. They just have to understand that in a 4-1 game, when you are a pitcher who is trying to conserve the bullpen for the weekend, you do not run that ball out hard to first base.

“Maybe in a 2-1 game, you run hard. But in a 4-1 game, you just want to stay strong. I totally support Kevin.”

When Gross was relieved after walking Gerald Young to start the eighth inning, the fans behind the Dodgers’ dugout gave him a standing ovation.

And in a few minutes, everyone wished Gross were back. Tim Crews retired his first two batters before allowing three consecutive hits and a walk.

Those hits included a run-scoring double by Steve Finley and a run-scoring grounder on which third baseman Harris threw late to first after vainly attempting to tag Finley at third.

With the bases loaded and Manager Tom Lasorda pacing in the dugout, McDowell was summoned.

“The best kind of games,” McDowell said with a smile.

Ken Caminiti fouled off his first pitch, looked at Strike 2, looked at Ball 1, then struck out on a high fastball, ending the inning.

Caminiti stood at home plate and laid his bat across his head, as if trying to break it. McDowell stared at the ground and walked quickly to the dugout, as if he had just picked somebody’s pocket.

“It was a mistake pitch, and I got away with it . . . but the last few weeks, these sorts of things have happened,” McDowell said. “It’s like we’ve known from the start of the game that we are going to win that game.”

* ATLANTA WINS: The Braves remained half a game behind the Dodgers with a 4-2 victory over the San Diego Padres in 10 innings. C4