BASEBALL DAILY REPORT : DODGERS : Back Not Hurting Wallach’s Hitting

Tim Wallach has been playing with a sore back since he sat out a game May 1 with back spasms. Since he returned to the lineup May 2, Wallach is batting .333 with nine runs batted in and two home runs.

“With a stiff back, my swing is shortened and it helps me,” Wallach said. “This used to happen when I was with Montreal, and Mike Fitzgerald would tell me that if my back got better he was going to stab me in the back.”

Wallach had an eight-game hitting streak going until Monday night, when he went 0 for 3 after being dropped from the fourth to the fifth spot in the batting order. During his five games at cleanup, he hit .409, so Lasorda put him back in the fourth spot Tuesday, and Wallach responded by going two for four.

But Wallach has also made three errors since his back soreness began. He is now tied with Jose Offerman with seven errors, the most on the team, after committing 15 all of last season. The starting infield has committed 21 of the team’s 32 errors, the most in the National League. Jody Reed has two errors, Eric Karros five.

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With the score tied, 1-1, in the eighth inning, Reed made a fine play when he stabbed a hard-hit grounder by Mark Grace and turned it into a double play. In the fifth inning, Reed made a diving stop of Dwight Smith’s grounder and threw to first for the out. . . . Jose Vizcaino’s two hits extended his hitting streak to 13 games, tying teammate Steve Buechele for the National League high. . . . Brett Butler has been on base with a hit or walk in 29 of 32 games. . . . Major League Baseball is touting an increase in attendance of 29.2%. But part of that may be because the National League now counts all tickets sold rather than the turnstile count, as it did in the past.