Struggling Dodgers Were Hitting in the Rain on Their Day Off

The rain started falling here on Saturday and didn’t let up until late Monday afternoon, causing the St. Louis Cardinals to postpone their home opener against the Dodgers until tonight.

Busch Stadium, which has artificial turf, might have been ready after some serious squeegee work in the outfield, but who could see the ball? The weather remained foggy, cold and windy, and the skies threatened another downpour later. So the day off that was scheduled for today somehow found a purpose, and the three-game series will begin tonight.

“An off day will do us good,” Dodger third baseman Tim Wallach said. “It could be a huge break.”

For the Dodgers, any time away from baseball after last week should be a pleasure. First, they misplaced Darryl Strawberry, an event that turned the clubhouse into a circus. Then, after finding him and helping him off to drug-alcohol rehabilitation, they won their first two games, only to go into a tailspin, losing their next four and boarding the plane for an eight-game trip with a collective batting average of .158.

“They are all trying too hard,” Coach Bill Russell said. “You hate to see it happen all together this way, but they will break out of it. The only guys getting on base have been Delino (DeShields) and Brett (Butler). But the other guys are just pressing too much. They are all here today, they are just in the batting cages.”

Many of the players spent time working with hitting instructor Reggie Smith. Mike Piazza, Eric Karros and Wallach, who make up the middle of the order, each is batting less than .150, with Piazza at .080.

Not having Strawberry’s bat in the lineup between Piazza and Karros is being felt.

“Just him not being in the lineup with that imposing presence hurts us,” Piazza said. “But we can’t use that as a crutch. This team has to be strong 1 through 9 to win.”

With Strawberry gone indefinitely, Piazza is the team’s only intimidating hitter, a situation he says isn’t causing him pressure. “You can say that it puts pressure on me, but I’m not feeling it,” he said.

After a phenomenal spring, during which he hit nine home runs, Piazza showed his first sign of regular-season power Sunday, when he hit a 460-foot home run. He has two hits in 25 at-bats. In that kind of situation last season, he probably would have been throwing batting helmets. But this seasonPiazza appears calm. He’s not happy about his slump, but he is confident it will end.

“I’m keeping my patience like a saint, and it’s scary,” Piazza said, smiling. “Of course I get mad, and I’m coming to the park and working hard, but you have to roll with the punches. “Last year, there were a couple of times when I was two for 30, but when you have a good year like I did (he was National League rookie of the year) and then you are cold coming out of the blocks, people want to panic.

“But in baseball, there are so many peaks and valleys and, as a player, you have to work yourself out of the valleys. That will happen, and God forbid if it doesn’t, but it’s like I told Eric (Karros), ‘There are so many games, so many years left.’ Going through something like this will help me down the line, I need to learn from this, and it will change. I will come out of it.”