Sharp Hershiser Sinks Rockies : Dodgers: Pitcher improves to 3-0. Rodriguez, Butler and Piazza get the big hits as team makes it nine of 10, 8-2.

The winds had been gusting all day Thursday, then picked up in the late innings at Mile High Stadium, but it didn’t matter to the Dodgers. By then, they had 15 hits and were on their way to another victory, an 8-2 blowout of the Colorado Rockies.

Even rookie infielder Garey Ingram got in on the fun. Ingram, batting for the first time as a major leaguer, hit a 2-2 pitch 384 feet into the left-field seats, then strode around the bases with a big smile on his face.

When he got back to the bench, Mike Piazza had something to say to him.

“I told him it wasn’t that easy,” Piazza said.

The Dodgers, though, are making it look easy these days. After a string of eight one-run games that had Manager Tom Lasorda’s stomach in knots, they have scored 35 runs in the last five games. And it doesn’t matter that those games have been against the Rockies and San Diego Padres, the Dodgers are accepting all victories and remain in sole possession of first place in the National League West.

“I tell you what, it’s contagious,” said Brett Butler, who hit .444, scored five runs and drove in three during the four-game Colorado series. “We’ve got a rookie (Raul Mondesi) with 51 hits already, and Eli (Tim Wallach) who has rejuvenated his career. We have five guys hitting over .300.”

The Dodgers have won nine of their last 10 and took three of four here for their first series victory on the road. Five starters had more than one hit Thursday, helping Orel Hershiser to his third victory. With better support, better relief pitching or both, he might well have had seven victories.

Hershiser, 3-0 with a 2.54 earned-run average, has held opponents to three earned runs or fewer in each of his nine starts this season, turning over a lead in most of them. He is pitching his best since 1990, when he hurt his shoulder and underwent reconstructive surgery. He is stronger, his breaking ball is sharper and his sinker more consistent.

Thursday, he gave up two runs--one earned--in seven innings before leaving because he felt some mild discomfort in his hip, which he had jammed sliding into second base during the San Francisco series two weeks ago.

“Our team is winning on the days I pitch, and that is important because I would like to return to the playoffs, “ said Hershiser, the only player remaining from the 1988 World Series championship team. “I’m trying to keep us in the game until the sixth or seventh inning. Earlier in my career I wanted to go nine every time out. I don’t see it as a cop-out, I see it as a strategy.”

The strategy of hitting instructor Reggie Smith is to get the players to drive the ball, and their collective .286 batting average leads the league. They are getting good at putting together the big inning, and in this game, as in the game before it, the Dodgers scored five runs in the sixth, chasing starter David Nied (5-3) and taking a 7-1 lead.

Mondesi, who is batting .333, had two doubles and a triple, scored and drove in a run. He extended his hitting streak to 11 games, during which he is batting .429 with five runs, two triples and five doubles.

“I had seven straight games, now I get 11, maybe I get 100 straight games,” joked Mondesi, who leads the league with 10 outfield assists and is tied with Butler for the league lead with five triples.

“Tommy tells me every game, ‘Don’t swing at bad pitches.’ ”

Delino DeShields went two for three and stole the 200th base of his career, and Butler tripled, singled, scored two runs and drove in two. Piazza, who is batting .323, was three for five, including a two-run single in the sixth inning and a run-scoring grounder in the fifth.

Henry Rodriguez hit his fifth homer in the second inning and started the sixth-inning rally when he pulled a line-drive single to right. He is batting .364.

Even reliever Roger McDowell got into the game, although he said later he needed a map to find the mound. McDowell, who hadn’t worked in eight games, pitched two hitless innings.

“This team is capable of winning, and we still haven’t hit our potential,” Hershiser said. “I said that last week, and I still think it. We aren’t firing on all cylinders. Bop (DeShields) and Offy (Jose Offerman), our speed game, aren’t there yet. And the bullpen, Todd’s been hurt. The starting rotation is just starting to come around. There’s a lot of potential left to be fulfilled.”