BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : DODGERS : A Record? Hansen Would Rather Start

Dave Hansen would rather not be closing in on the club’s single-season record for pinch hits.

Pinch-hit records are set by bench-warmers, a position Hansen isn’t ready to accept at 24.

Still, he got pinch-hit No. 14 in Friday night’s loss to the Padres. The club record, 17, was set by teammate Mitch Webster last season.

If Hansen, who got a rare start at third base Saturday, fails to start several more games this season, the record could be his.

“I just look at it as a chance to bat,” he said. “I don’t get too overwhelmed by the situation.”

In other words, he doesn’t want to make a career of it.

“It’s not something you can master,” Hansen said. “You only get one chance a night.”

Hansen hopes he can prove to the Dodgers, in rare glimpses, that he can be an everyday player.

“It can help you,” he said of the pinch hits. “Every time up I try to show that I can hit. I just wait for chances so I can show them some more.”

Hansen said there are no secrets about being a pinch-hitter, other than one’s frame of mind.

“It’s hard to play baseball negatively,” he said. “Whatever I do, I do positively. It’s worked out good for me.”

Hansen showed he could hit as a regular, too, getting singles in his first two at-bats Saturday night.

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Tony Gwynn of the Padres has hit safely in 12 of his last 13 games. With his .353 average entering the game, Gwynn is a cinch to finish with a .300 or better average for the 11th consecutive season. . . . He’s an actor, he’s a player, he’s a singer. After playing in the annual Hollywood Star’s baseball game at Dodger Stadium before Saturday night’s game, actor Jason Alexander, who co-stars in the television sit-com “Seinfeld,” then sang the national anthem. . . . The Dodgers’ Mike Piazza and Brett Butler made “surprise” appearances in the annual celebrity game.