Dodgers Spurn the Strawberry Jinx to Win, 10-5 : Baseball: Martinez pitches well, Karros hits two home runs as L.A. takes big lead and holds off Giants.

Some of the Dodgers, trying to explain their five-game losing streak, thought maybe it would take a series of this importance to turn things around.

Arriving at Candlestick Park Monday knowing they would once again be subject to the hoopla surrounding former teammate Darryl Strawberry and having seen their lead over the San Francisco Giants in the NL West shrink to 1 1/2 games, the Dodgers played well.

Before 50,144, they didn’t falter, rolling to a 10-5 victory behind strong starting pitching by Ramon Martinez and two home runs by first baseman Eric Karros.

“I don’t remember a game having this kind of media coverage with this many people on the field before the game except for camera day last week,” Karros said. “We needed this as a team.”

The Dodgers needed a strong performance from a starter, and Martinez provided it, shutting out the Giants until the seventh inning, when Matt Williams crushed the first pitch he saw into the left field seats for his 37th home run.

“I had to go all out tonight,” Martinez said. “I was really concentrating.”

The Dodgers needed a big inning, and they got that in the sixth, sending 11 batters to the plate in a five-run inning.

Karros’ home runs in the second, a solo shot, and ninth, a three-run blast, were his second and third in two games.

With a strike threat looming, the atmosphere at Candlestick Park before the game was more like a playoff game than a mid-season series. Darryl Strawberry in a Giants’ uniform was an added feature, and, before the game, the entire focus.

One by one several Dodger players stopped and said hello to Strawberry at the batting cage. But nothing seemed to get more attention than an earlier encounter, when Strawberry, spotting Manager Tom Lasorda on the field, went over and briefly said hello.

Strawberry says he harbors no animosity toward Lasorda for having said that drug abuse is a weakness, not a disease. And Lasorda says he and Strawberry are good friends. But when it comes to the game, it’s a different story.

“I can say that I do not want Darryl to be successful for the Giants because that is the team we are competing against,” Lasorda said. “But after that’s all over, I want him to be successful and have a happy life.”

The Giant fans, who love to hate Lasorda, did so in vociferous tradition before the game, booing Lasorda as he made the long walk across the field to the Dodger dugout. Lasorda, also in traditional fashion, waved and blew kisses.

Giant fans, though, showed their appreciation for Strawberry, giving him a standing ovation before his first at-bat.

Since Strawberry joined the team July 7, the Giants are 12-3. With the help of the Dodgers’ 4-10 skid, the Giants made up eight games in the standings to pull to within 1 1/2 games of the division-leading Dodgers, setting up the three-game showdown.

“We are right where we want to be, we’re still in the pennant race,” Strawberry said. “It’s nothing to panic about. Tonight was just not our night.”

The game reminded the Dodgers of the spring, or even a month ago, when they would not only hit the ball, but score.

The Dodgers knocked out starter Mark Portugal (9-7) in a five-run sixth inning, but left-handed reliever Bryan Hickerson didn’t fare much better.

With the Dodgers leading by 2-0, Tim Wallach led off the inning with a single and moved to third on a double by Karros.

With Rafael Bournigal at bat and one out, Raul Mondesi was intentionally walked.

But the strategy backfired. Bournigal’s opposite-field single to right scored Wallach and Karros. Brett Butler singled up the middle for one run and Mike Piazza added two more runs with an opposite-field single to right.

The Giants scored three runs in the ninth against closer Todd Worrell, one on a home run by former Dodger Todd Benzinger.