Dodgers Get $824 Bargain : Baseball: That is how much is earned by Kip Gross, who pitches an 8-3 victory over the Expos. L.A. then caps another sweep, 4-3.

Kip Gross did not join the Dodgers in their group embrace Monday after they swept their second doubleheader in four days, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t celebrate.

Somewhere out on Interstate 10, maybe he honked his horn.

After defeating the Montreal Expos in the first game, 8-3, Gross said he would listen to the second game, the Dodgers’ 4-3 comeback victory, while driving a compact truck he recently purchased from teammate Dave Hansen.

Destination? Albuquerque.

Gross, who was immediately demoted to make room for Darryl Strawberry’s return, could only listen on the radio as the Dodgers mounted a four-run comeback during the seventh inning without Strawberry’s help.

Mike Sharperson drove in two runs with a two-strike double, and Eric Davis scored two more with a two-strike single against reliever Jeff Fassero.

It then took four Dodger relievers to end it after the Expos scored once during the ninth.

Jim Gott retired Gary Carter on a foul pop to catcher Carlos Hernandez with runners on first and third to earn his third save.

Before 34,169 at Dodger Stadium, it was enough to give the Dodgers their fifth victory in seven games and help them improve to 9-5 in this 22-game home stand.

“We’ve got to get an eight-, nine-, 10-game winning streak to get back in it,” Manager Tom Lasorda said. “I keep telling these guys, ‘We’ve got to get back to .500.’ After today, we’ve got to get eight more.”

After going more than three years without sweeping a doubleheader, the Dodgers have done so twice in less than 80 hours. They will have a chance to do it twice more in the next 30 hours, with two more doubleheaders against the Expos.

Strawberry, playing for the first time in 49 games after suffering a herniated disk, got a seventh-inning single after the scoring was complete. He had failed to advance six runners in his first three at-bats, with two fly balls and a grounder.

“You hear people chanting, ‘Darryl, Darryl,’ and that brings a lot of excitement to the ballpark,” said Orel Hershiser, the second-game winner. “Maybe it will rub off on the rest of us.”

Strawberry and Davis played in the same lineup for only the 21st time in 80 games this season. But Davis left the second game during the eighth inning because of a pulled groin muscle.

Hershiser won for the first time in nearly a month, giving up two runs and 10 hits in seven innings. He has given up 23 hits in his last two starts.

But for the first and perhaps only time in his career, he was upstaged by Gross, who was paid $824.17 for his one-day effort.

In six innings in the opener, Gross gave up three runs and seven hits. But after the first inning, he yielded no runs and three hits.

“The win was the main thing, but getting the truck was a big bonus,” Gross said. “You could also probably write that the other way around.”

As did Pedro Astacio, the pitcher recalled from triple-A Albuquerque who threw a shutout in Friday’s doubleheader sweep of the Philadelphia Phillies, Gross left the field to a standing ovation.

But, unlike Astacio, he kept going.

“Nice to have you here,” said Hershiser while shaking Gross’ hand after the first game. “See you later.”

Gross, who says he has been recalled seven times in three seasons, knew he was here for only one start.

“When I got here (Sunday), I only took a shirt and a pair of jeans out of my suitcase,” said Gross, 27, in his second stint with the Dodgers after being traded here from the Cincinnati Reds last winter with Davis.

“I had a good idea what’s going on,” Gross said. “I’m beyond the point of being disappointed and all that stuff. Hey, it’s one more day in the big leagues.”

That day almost became one inning after Gross gave up hits to four of the first six batters and yielded three runs during the first inning.

After spending the last two days on airplanes, returning to Albuquerque from one long trip then flying to Los Angeles, Gross said he had to reacquaint himself with the baseball.

But finally he settled down, and only one runner made it as far as third base against him after the first.

This gave the Expos’ defense, which is nearly as bad as Philadelphia’s and the Dodgers’, time to act up. A wild throw by second baseman Delino DeShields was among four Expo errors--two by DeShields--that led to four unearned runs.

It was the Dodgers’ turn during the second game, as they got only one hit in the first six innings of Kent Bottenfield’s major league debut.

But after Jose Offerman reached first against Fassero during the seventh on a third-strike wild pitch, the Dodgers’ luck changed.

Mitch Webster improved his average as a pinch-hitter to .429 with a single to right. Offerman and Webster then pulled a double steal, and Brett Butler walked, bringing in Bill Sampen, who gave up the hits to Sharperson and Davis.

The Expos got three hits against Jay Howell during the ninth before Roger McDowell, John Candelaria and Gott got outs to complete the day’s games in 6 hours 1 minute.