BASEBALL DAILY REPORT : DODGERS : Butler on the Other Side

It’s going to be a strange sight, Manager Tom Lasorda said, when he looks at center field at St. Lucie County Stadium tonight and sees Brett Butler wearing a New York Met uniform.

“It’s going to seem unnatural, but we’re going to have to get used to it,” Lasorda said. “I think Butler has a lot of good baseball left.”

Butler, who spent four years with the Dodgers, signed a $2-million free-agent contract last week with the Mets. He originally was planning to sign the one-year, $3.5-million offer that the Dodgers had tendered him in January, but it was pulled off the table when the strike ended.

“I kind of went through an initial shock period,” Butler said, “especially because there was a contract offer. But I’m here now, and changing the mind-set is the key.”

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Lasorda has been in baseball for 50 years, but never had he witnessed what happened in the eighth inning of Monday’s exhibition game against the New York Yankees at Fort Lauderdale, Fla: an unassisted triple play.

Reggie Williams was on second base, Eddie Pye on first and Mitch Webster at the plate. Webster, given the hit-and-run sign, hit a soft liner to shortstop Randy Velarde, who touched second base for the second out, then tagged Pye for the unassisted triple play.

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The Dodgers are concerned about the play of left fielder Billy Ashley, who has been troubled by a sore lower back. Ashley struck out twice and made an error when he booted Don Mattingly’s bloop single to left. He was removed for pinch hitter Todd Hollandsworth in the fifth inning. Ashley, who has been undergoing back treatment for an hour each morning because of a degenerative disk, is expected to be examined today. . . . Shortstop Jose Offerman went two for four with two runs scored and is batting a team-high .460 with six runs scored in four games.