BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAN : From the Top, DeShields and Butler Starting It Off Right

As the team within the team, Delino DeShields and Brett Butler may represent the most productive potential at the top of the Dodgers’ lineup since (choose one):

--Davey Lopes and Bill Russell batted 1-2 for three consecutive seasons starting in 1977.

--Maury Wills and Bill Buckner batted 1-2 for three consecutive seasons starting in 1970.

--Wills teamed with Jim Gilliam or Wes Parker or Willie Davis at various times in the 1960s.

“It’s going to be exciting,” Manager Tom Lasorda said Tuesday after DeShields and Butler accounted for three Dodger runs in a 4-3 opening-day victory over the charitable Florida Marlins at Dodger Stadium.

“The one guy (DeShields) is capable of stealing 50 bases, and the other guy (Butler) knows how to protect him and bunt him over.

“As much as I’d like to bat Delino third, he has more value leading off.

“If the two guys at the top are on base as much as we think they’ll be, (Mike) Piazza and (Eric) Karros should have a field day driving in runs.”

Piazza and Karros each had a run batted in as the Dodgers began their pursuit of the San Francisco Giants in the realigned National League West and demonstrated, for one day at least, that their realigned lineup might not need Darryl Strawberry.

DeShields and Butler weren’t looking behind them Tuesday.

“We talk about that constantly,” Butler said of the team within a team concept.

“We have to get the gears in motion, the engine running. Delino is the main cog, and I’m more than willing to sacrifice at-bats to help him get in scoring position. There’s a lot we can do. I really feel we’re going to score a lot of runs.”

They waited only until the first inning of the first game to put up the first two.

DeShields got it started, scorching a Charlie Hough knuckler to the left of second baseman Bret Barberie, who made a skidding, backhanded stop but bounced a hurried throw to first base, where Orestes Destrade couldn’t handle it, giving the swift DeShields his first Dodger hit.

Butler advanced him in unusual style, ripping a drive to right-center field that Gary Sheffield played like the former infielder he is, failing to make an angular pursuit as the ball soared past him for a triple and a 1-0 lead. It became 2-0 when third baseman Jerry Browne misplayed Piazza’s ensuing grounder.

The Dodgers trailed, 3-2, in the seventh when DeShields walked, stole second, moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Butler and tied the score on a single to left by Karros.

“As much as I’d love to hit first, Tommy came to us in spring training and said he wanted to utilize the best lineup, and this is it,” Butler said.

“You’ve got your best base stealer hitting first and your best bunter batting second. The Giants were pretty successful in ’89 when I batted leadoff and Robby Thompson hit second, but this has a chance to be the best combination I’ve ever been part of.

“It’s exciting, what we have a chance to do at the top of the lineup.”

Their credentials are impressive.

DeShields has a .282 average in the leadoff role, including .300 for 107 games last year, when he stole 43 bases. He has been successful on 72.8% of his steal attempts, having improved this statistic recently when he began to run, as he said, “only when the score and situation dictates it.”

Butler’s bat control and ability to take the count deep is documented in several ways: He had 26 bunt hits last year, the 10th consecutive season of 20 or more. He led the league in singles for the fourth season in a row, a first. He was among the top five in walks for the sixth time in the last seven seasons. And he was second to Lenny Dykstra in pitches seen, 2,836.

Of the runs that evolved from his walk and infield single Tuesday, DeShields said, “Manufacturing runs is what I do. That’s how we scored a lot of runs in Montreal. This was a good day. Everybody did what they had to do.”

DeShields teamed with Marquis Grissom at the top of the Expos’ lineup for three years before 1993, when Grissom batted third. DeShields said he and Butler are trying to reach that same productive level.

“All it is is communication,” DeShields said. “Me and Marquis came up together through their system. It was like clockwork. Me and Butler will get there in time.”