Piazza Comes Back With Quite a Bang : Baseball: In third at-bat, he hits a two-run homer, and Dodgers win, 5-3, on Parker’s dribbler.

Fred Claire, the Dodgers’ executive vice president, said it wouldn’t take Mike Piazza long to regain his timing after spending 24 days on the disabled list because of a torn ligament in his left thumb.

“I don’t think it will take a couple of weeks for him to get his timing back--maybe a couple of at-bats,” Claire said before the Dodgers activated their all-star catcher for Sunday’s game against the New York Mets.

After going hitless in his first two at-bats, flying out to center field and popping out to second base, Piazza drilled a two-run home run to right field in the sixth inning as the Dodgers beat the Mets, 5-3, before a paid crowd of 36,339 at Dodger Stadium.

“It felt like opening day again for me,” said Piazza, who also missed the Dodgers’ home opener because of a hamstring injury. “My adrenaline was really kicking. Hopefully, I can keep it up. I guess it worked today.

“I was pleasantly surprised. I didn’t want to go out there expecting too much. I said, ‘Well, it’s going to take some time,’ but I stayed relaxed.”

There’s no question the Dodgers need Piazza.

“I happen to be a Piazza fan,” Met Manager Dallas Green said after Piazza went one for three and scored two runs. “I think he’s one of the finest players in the game of baseball today. I wish he was playing for me. He adds a presence that a lot of teams don’t have.”

The Dodgers were 8-14 without Piazza, who was batting .537 with four home runs and 13 runs batted in before he was injured.

“I couldn’t wait for this day,” Manager Tom Lasorda said. “To have [Piazza] back in the lineup is great for the team. He’s got a great attitude and he’s got a ton of talent.

“He’s just a little off, but he’ll catch up to some balls.”

Still, on the day the Dodgers welcomed back their premier slugger, they beat the Mets for the fifth time in six games this season because Rick Parker delivered a swinging bunt along the third-base line that drove in two runs in the eighth inning.

“That’s the strange thing about this game: The little guy can be the hero,” Parker said. “It’s not how far or hard, it’s where you hit it.”

With the bases loaded after Raul Mondesi’s one-out bloop double and walks to Piazza and Eric Karros, Met reliever Jerry DiPoto tried to lob the ball to catcher Todd Hundley on Parker’s dribbler.

But the ball sailed past Hundley, whose view was obscured by the oncoming Mondesi, and rolled halfway to the Met dugout as both Mondesi and Piazza scored to give Dodger reliever Felix Rodriguez his first career victory.

“Once I got there, the ball had stopped rolling, and I had to pick it up from a standstill,” DiPoto said. “The only chance I had was to either lob it to Todd at home plate or to jump out and tag Mondesi, but he was already by me, so I had no other option but to lob it up there and hope. . . .

“I lobbed it over [Mondesi’s] head, figuring that was the only shot we had left.

“It was frustrating. I felt like I made a great pitch and did what I wanted to do, butit didn’t work out. . . . It was either that or hold onto it and let one run score.

“But Mondesi’s body was blocking Todd’s view of me, so he never saw the ball coming.”

Mondesi, who went three for four--with a double--and scored two runs, said it was a tough play.

“He tried to tag me, but he was behind me and I was too fast and scored,” Mondesi said.

Green, who thought DiPoto actually made contact with Mondesi, said: “He almost made a tremendous play out of it. If [DiPoto] tags [Mondesi], he’s out and we’re out of the inning, but unfortunately, the momentum tore the ball loose and turned the tide.

“It was a nice little five-foot hit.”