Veterans Meet the Challenge, Dodgers Win : Baseball: Butler, Wallach, Candiotti show the kids how it’s done in 7-1 victory over Padres that finishes 6-0 home stand.

The kids are all right, but three 36-year-olds galloped around the bases, set milestones and generally provided the punch and the pitching for the Dodgers on Sunday afternoon in a 7-1 victory over the San Diego Padres.

On an overcast, muggy day before 45,917 at Dodger Stadium, Tom Candiotti controlled the Padres over nine innings, Tim Wallach legged out a stand-up triple and drove in two runs and Brett Butler led everything off with a bunt single, the 2,000th hit of his career.

Sure, the young guys did their part: Raul Mondesi, Eric Karros, Mike Piazza and Delino DeShields scored and had multiple-hit games.

And sure, the Padres showed the combination of bad pitching and hitting that has led them to the worst record in baseball, 10-26, half a game poorer than the Oakland Athletics.

But as the Dodgers rolled to a sweep of this six-game home stand and packed their bags for Colorado tied with the Giants in first place in the NL West, it was clearly theage-challenged who led the way.

“You mean the old guys, right?” Butler said. “Well, it just shows we’re getting good play out of everybody. It’s a collective effort to win games.”

Butler agreed it made sense that his milestone came by his signature talent.

“It had to be a bunt, didn’t it?” Butler said. “That’s what I’m known for. What a way to get 2,000, with a bunt. It’s great.”

But after the hit, when Butler glanced to the dugout for recognition after dragging an 0-and-1 sinker down the first-base line and beating the throw to first, he got a surprise.

Manager Tom Lasorda got everybody to run down the hallway and clear the dugout, so when Butler looked over all he saw was an empty bench.

“They dogged me,” Butler said. “That was their way of getting on me, the old man.”

Said Candiotti: “I’ve been with Brett probably longer than anybody, back when we were in Cleveland, and it’s a special feat. He hasn’t changed a thing since I’ve known him.

“I’ve seen a lot of his hits. I’ve benefited from a lot of his hits.”

Butler recovered from the prank in time to steal second and score on Piazza’s double down the left field line, giving Candiotti a 1-0 lead.

Candiotti (4-1) showed immediately that Sunday would be different from his last outing--2 1/3 innings of non-knuckling knuckleballs last Saturday against Houston.

He said pitching coach Ron Perranoski noticed he was releasing the ball too high, causing his knuckler to dart from side-to-side instead of the more effective up-and-down action.

By moving his release point lower and concentrating on keeping his fingers on top of the ball--and also getting the bonus of the thick air Sunday--Candiotti’s knuckler was dancing wildly.

“The ball was really exploding downward today,” said Candiotti, who gave up five hits, walked one and struck out seven.

“When it starts off in the strike zone, it’s really tough for right-handed hitters to lay off of it when it dives down.”

Candiotti gave up a run in the fourth inning, but by then the Dodgers had pounded A.J. Sager (1-3) for three more runs, triggered by Wallach’s two-run triple to the right-center field gap.

Then, on a medium-deep fly by Henry Rodriguez, the not-exactly-speedy Wallach tagged up and beat Phil Plantier’s throw, making the score 4-1.

The Dodgers got three more runs in the seventh inning against reliever Jose Martinez, two scoring on a Mondesi double and one on a suicide squeeze bunt by Candiotti.

After playing eight consecutive one-run games and enduring a slew of come-from-behind situations, Sunday was a nice break from the tension for the Dodgers.

“Today was the first time we’ve had a little breathing room,” Lasorda said.

The 6-0 home stand is second-best in team history, behind only the 9-0 home stand last May, part of last year’s 13-game home winning streak.

“We’re doing it the right way,” Piazza said. “We’re not relying on one guy to carry the club, because when you do that, and that one guy starts to cool off, the whole team starts to struggle.

“Right now, it’s a contagious sort of thing on this ballclub. With our pitchers, Orel (Hershiser) throws a good game, so Tommy wants to throw a better one. If Eli (Tim Wallach) gets a big knock, then Eric or I want to get the next one.”