BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : DODGERS : Benzinger Resigned to Fate on Bench

With only two starts in the last 14 games, Todd Benzinger has quietly resigned himself to two things:

He will spend most of the final months of the season as a pinch-hitter, and he will probably be playing somewhere else next year.

“The farther we fall behind, the quicker we will undergo the process of bringing about a new Dodger team, and I think I make too much money for what I’m doing,” said Benzinger, who is making $1.1 million.

“I see me as one of those guys who can be affected by the expansion draft. I don’t think they would protect me.”

Benzinger’s value has certainly not been lowered as a pinch-hitter. In his last nine pinch at-bats, he has five hits, with two doubles and a run batted in.

When he left the starting lineup, he was batting .225. He has improved to .244.

“I certainly want to be a regular player, but I understand what is happening here, and I just want to do as well as I can under the circumstances,” he said.

He nearly hit the Dodgers’ sixth pinch home run of the season Saturday when he doubled off the top of the center-field wall during the sixth inning at Philadelphia. But he was among three Dodgers stranded when Mike Sharperson ended the inning with a fly ball.

Eric Karros’ sixth-inning home run was only the Dodgers’ fourth in the last month. The Dodgers’ two homers Saturday gave them one fewer homer in one inning than they had during their 22-game home stand. . . . Tim Crews left Saturday’s game because of a blister on the index finger of his right hand, but he said he won’t be sidelined. . . . Dave Anderson said that he is ready to return from the disabled list today, the first day he is eligible since suffering a strained hamstring. When he is reinstated, Tom Goodwin probably will be sent back to triple-A Albuquerque for a second time this season. Goodwin went hitless in six at-bats during his latest Dodger stint, with one start and four pinch-running or defensive replacement appearances since July 9.

Bret Saberhagen will pitch in his first game for the New York Mets since May 15 when he faces Tom Candiotti on Tuesday at Shea Stadium. Saberhagen’s last appearance was also against the Dodgers, when he suffered tendinitis in his right index finger. . . . Eric Young is becoming a candidate for the Dodgers’ second base job with a .342 average and 46 RBIs for Albuquerque. Young, a 46th-round pick from Rutgers in 1989, is one of the fastest players in the organization and turns the double play as well as anyone.