Karros Helps Make Up for Lost Time at Plate : Dodgers: He ends slump with four hits, four runs batted in against the Marlins, 9-4.

His numbers lagged for much of the season, but Eric Karros has been hitting enough in the second half to avoid the so-called sophomore jinx that has claimed more than a few rookies of the year.

And Manager Tom Lasorda likes what he sees from his first baseman, the 12th Dodger to be voted the NL’s top rookie.

Karros had a career-high four hits, four runs batted in and one of three Dodger home runs in support of a hitless Orel Hershiser as the Dodgers beat the Florida Marlins, 9-4, Saturday night.

“It’s especially good to see him do it,” Lasorda said. “He needed it desperately.

“He’s been trying too hard. That is what happens when you have a good rookie year the year before. They try to hard to top it.”

Karros and Cory Snyder, who also homered along with Henry Rodriguez, ended batting slumps. Karros went four for five after entering the game three for 17 on the trip that ends Sunday. Snyder, who went two for four with a walk, came in four for 17 on the trip.

“It was long overdue,” Lasorda said of Snyder’s homer. “When he came up, I said he’d hit a home run, and by God he hit it.”

Hershiser (11-12), who was the loser in the Marlins’ first game of the season, settled down after a shaky first inning during which he gave up three runs--two unearned--on two hits.

He pitched eight-plus innings and won his third consecutive start by giving up eight hits, striking out four and walking one. But Hershiser was hitless in five at-bats, lowering his batting average to .391. The National League record for a pitcher is .406 by Jack Bentley of the 1923 New York Giants.

“It’s about time I took an oh-fer,” Hershiser said. “I’m a pitcher. I’ll work on it. I’d trade hits (25) for wins.”

Jack Armstrong (7-15), winless since July 17, gave up eight of the Dodgers’ 13 hits and six runs in 4 1/3 innings. He yielded two homers, bringing his total to 27--one behind the league-worst figure of the Colorado Rockies’ Greg Harris.

Rodriguez hit his sixth homer to start the second inning, cutting the Marlins’ lead to 3-2. Karros singled in the fourth and Snyder hit his ninth homer to put the Dodgers ahead for good.

“I got him out easily the first time and I was just trying not to let him beat me,” Armstrong said of Snyder. “And that’s why he beat me. I wasn’t aggressive.”

Marlin Manager Rene Lachemann agreed.

“Homers really hurt us, that was basically it,” he said. “We had some chances early on Orel, but we let them come back.”

Karros drove in two runs with a single in the fifth and two more in the seventh with his 19th homer, giving the Dodgers an 8-3 lead.

The Dodgers took a 1-0 lead when Jose Offerman’s flyball triple was dropped by Marlin right fielder Matias Carrillo. Tim Wallach followed with an RBI single.

The Marlins came back with three runs in their half, aided by errors by catcher Carlos Hernandez and shortstop Offerman. Orestes Destrade had a two-run double in the inning.

The Marlins added a run in the eighth on Gary Sheffield’s 20th home run.