Bagwell, Astros Bag the Dodgers : Baseball: He hits three home runs--two in the nine-run sixth--as Houston rolls, 16-4.

He has been one of the most underrated players in the game, overlooked mostly because there are others in the league who play first base with more power, more personality and in a better TV market.

Even Friday night, after Jeff Bagwell had hit his third homer in the Dodgers’ 16-4 loss at the Astrodome, he didn’t smile until he got back to the Houston Astro dugout and received the congratulations of his teammates and of the 34,550 who cheered him out for a curtain call.

“It’s my biggest night ever,” said Bagwell, who was four for five, drove in six runs and leads the league with 74 runs batted in. “I mean, I hit three home runs in college, but what’s that, against the University of Richmond? This is the big leagues.”

Bagwell, 26, hit home runs against three Dodgers, including two homers in the Astros’ nine-run sixth inning--making him only the 28th player in major league history to get two in an inning.

Back in the Dodger clubhouse, catcher Mike Piazza was getting treatment on his left arch when the Astros erupted in the sixth. Piazza suffered a sprain as he landed on first base while beating out a grounder in the third inning. His status was listed as day to day.

“You have got to give them the credit, they are a good offensive club and are tough at home,” said Piazza, who is second in the league to Bagwell with 65 RBIs.

“We’ve never played them well here since I have been here, though that’s not an excuse.”

The Dodgers, who have won only three of their last 16 games here, have more to worry about than that. The loss dropped them to 36-36, the first time they haven’t been above .500 since May 11, when they were 17-17 after completing a three-game sweep of Houston at Dodger Stadium. They had a better record after 72 games last season, 37-35, but were tied for third in the National League West.

That three-game sweep of the Astros sent them on a seven-game winning streak, during which they took sole possession of first place. But after an 11-2 stretch, during which the bullpen began to falter, the Dodgers have gone 11-17.

Against four Dodger pitchers Friday night, the Astros scored 16 runs, the first time the Dodgers have given up that many since 1987.

The Astros turned a 3-1, sixth-inning lead into a 12-1 cushion--the first time since Aug. 21, 1990, against the Philadelphia Phillies, that the Dodgers have given up nine runs in an inning. With Ramon Martinez (6-4) on the mound, Bagwell hit a towering one-out home run to left field.

A walk, two hits and a run later, Roger McDowell took over and gave up four more runs. Rudy Seanez replaced McDowell and gave up Bagwell’s second home run of the inning, a three-run drive into the Astros’ bullpen in right field.

Dodger left-hander Brian Barnes gave up four more runs over the next 1 2/3 innings, including Bagwell’s third homer.

“When they are hot like that, it doesn’t matter what you throw, they hit,” Martinez said. Chris Gwynn and Raul Mondesi hit back-to-back homers in the eighth inning to close the Dodger scoring.

Later, Bagwell, the 1991 National League rookie of the year who is batting .357 with a career-high 23 homers, humbly answered questions about his big night.

“I don’t know what I did right or what I did wrong, I just swung the bat and it had the right trajectory, I guess,” Bagwell said.

Bagwell has improved each season, batting .320 in 1993 with 20 homers and 88 RBIs. He doesn’t like talking about himself. But Eric Karros doesn’t mind talking about him at all.

“Wrap up the MVP trophy right now and give it to him,” Karros said.

“He’s the best right-handed hitter in the National League, and I can say the best all-around hitter. He’s a guy who you like to see do well, but not against your own team, because you know that he can swing and beat you.”