Dodgers’ Wallach Makes It Quick and Painless, 7-1

Larry Walker lost count, Pedro Martinez lost a game, Tim Wallach lost two balls deep into the left field stands and the Dodgers avoided a lost weekend.

In a night of relief for the Dodgers, both comic and otherwise, Wallach’s two two-run homers against his former Montreal Expo teammates and Pedro Astacio’s complete-game performance led the Dodgers to a quick-and-easy 7-1 victory before 38,817 at Dodger Stadium on Sunday night.

For the Dodgers, the 2-hour 23-minute victory was especially sweet coming on the heels of Saturday’s four-hour-plus, come-from-ahead extra-inning defeat in which they not only blew two leads but lost second baseman Delino DeShields in a scary collision with Raul Mondesi.

“I sensed we really needed a win,” Wallach said. “That’s about as solid a game as we’ve played all year.”

It came at the expense of Martinez (0-2), the popular younger brother of Ramon Martinez who was traded from the Dodgers to the Expos last winter in exchange for DeShields.

Martinez, who came within three outs of a no-hitter April 13 against the Reds, was tagged hard and early by the Dodgers, giving up a double to leadoff batter Brett Butler in the first, followed one out later by Piazza’s home run to center field.

“I think they know how I pitch,” said Martinez, who struck out nine in his 6 2/3 innings but gave up six runs. “I know them, too, but they got me this time.

“The pitches I was throwing with runners on base, they were hitting. Maybe next time I’ll get them.”

Wallach, who also struck out twice against Martinez, said his home run against Martinez in the third inning was a matter of connecting with one of the few hittable pitches Martinez threw him.

“(Martinez) was throwing good,” Wallach said. “I think you’d better be ready when he’s out there. He throws hard, he’s got good off-speed pitches. If you’re not ready, he’ll do what he did to me the other two times. He abused me those two at-bats.”

Wallach’s second home run, his sixth of the season, came on the first pitch from reliever Jeff Shaw in the seventh.

Wallach, who has batted .225 or worse in each of his last three seasons, has six home runs and 19 runs batted in in the last 15 games, and including the home run he hit against Montreal on Saturday, had three home runs in two days against his former team.

“I can’t question why people would question me,” Wallach said. “Because I haven’t done the job I think I can do. I have something to prove, yeah.

“But there’s no question the last two weeks probably have been as well as I’ve swung the bat in three years. I haven’t had a run like this in quite a while.”

But despite Wallach’s two home runs, the most memorable moment of the game was Walker’s trip down the right field line in the third inning, when he lost track of the outs.

After catching a Piazza flyball, Walker, thinking it was the third out--it was the second--handed the ball to a boy in the stands, allowing Jose Offerman to move from first to third, from which he scored on Wallach’s first home run.

Afterward, Walker was joking about the incident and most of the Dodger players were simply happy it did not happen to them.

“He came up to bat afterward and said, ‘That has to be the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever done,’ ” Piazza said. “I said, ‘I’m not saying anything. ‘

“I’m the guy who forgot to call time out and allowed a guy to steal home on me. And it’s funny, the same umpire (Steve Rippley) was behind the plate tonight who was at third when I did that.

“You know, it’s hard to count to three sometimes.”

Astacio (1-2), who entered the game with a 9.18 earned-run average, made proper use of the big hits and the big breaks he got, cruising to his first complete game of the season.

He threw a total of 108 pitches--67 for strikes--and neither walked nor struck out anyone. The Expos got seven hits against him, but none for extra bases and scored their run on a fielder’s choice after two singles in the seventh inning.

“It was good to see Astacio pitch well,” Pedro Martinez said. “You know, I had fun hitting against him.”

* DeSHIELDS: The Dodger second baseman leaves the hospital after a concussion. C4