Dodgers Take Long Way Home : Baseball: Karros’ second home run (L.A.’s fifth) is the difference against Giants, 7-6.

Whenever the Dodgers hit a home run, Dodger Stadium organist Nancy Bea Hefley plays “Happy Days Are Here Again.”

The song began to get a bit monotonous after the Dodgers hit five homers, four in the first four innings off San Francisco Giant starter Jose Bautista, to beat the Giants, 7-6, Thursday night before a paid crowd of 33,489 at Dodger Stadium.

It was the most home runs the Dodgers have hit in a home game since they hit five against Cincinnati on May 25, 1979.

The Dodgers hit more home runs than singles (four).

After the Giants tied the game at 6-6 in the top of the eighth, first baseman Eric Karros broke the tie when he drilled his second home run of the game into the right field bleachers off relief pitcher Dave Burba in the bottom of the inning.

Karros led off the fourth inning by hitting his 12th home run of the season into the left field box seats. Barry Bonds tried to make a leaping catch, but mistimed his jump and the ball sailed over his outstretched glove.

“It’s good to start off the home stand with a win,” Karros said. “If it’s the eighth inning, my job is to hit the ball out of the ball park. I hit that ball about as hard as I could hit a ball.”

Although Karros said he isn’t swinging for the fences, he has hit a team-high 13 homers this season to overtake Raul Mondesi (12).

“That’s just the type of year he’s having,” left fielder Billy Ashley said of Karros. “That’s a good way of thinking; if you’re not thinking of home runs, they seem to come.”

The Dodgers (27-26), who have hit 17 home runs in their last nine games, climbed above .500 for the first time since May 16 as Todd Worrell worked a perfect ninth inning.

Worrell earned his 11th save by getting Robby Thompson on a grounder to short, Bonds on a short fly to left field and Mark Carreon on a called third strike.

The Dodgers’ home run derby began when catcher Mike Piazza hit one of the longest home runs ever at Dodger Stadium in the bottom of the first to drive in Jose Offerman.

Piazza’s homer, his 10th of the season, was estimated at 455 feet. It landed near the top of the left field pavilion.

Piazza, who went two for four, nearly hit another homer in his next at-bat in the third inning when he drove a ball to the warning track in center field.

Ashley belted his seventh home run of the season with two out in the second inning to give the Dodgers a 3-1 lead.

The Dodgers, who hit five homers at Wrigley Field last Saturday, added two more in the fourth inning.

After Karros’ leadoff homer, Mondesi singled and third baseman Tim Wallach hit a two-run homer halfway into the left field bleachers, giving the Dodgers a 6-2 lead.

Bautista, who has given up 12 home runs in 47 2/3 innings, had control problems.

“They hit my best pitch, but I wasn’t throwing it that well,” Bautista said of his forkball. “If I keep the pitch down, I don’t think they hit me, but I was hanging the forkball.”

Dodger starter Ramon Martinez, bidding to become the first eight-game winner in the National League, and reliever Rudy Seanez couldn’t hold the lead.

With the Giants trailing, 6-3, in the seventh inning, Bonds hit a towering shot into the right field box seats just inside the foul pole to drive in Darren Lewis and chase Martinez.

Martinez wasn’t surprised that Giant Manager Dusty Baker let Bonds swing away on a 3-0 pitch.

“I knew that he was going to swing because I wanted to walk him and then face Carreon,” Martinez said. “But the pitch was too much over the plate and he got it.”

The Giants tied it at 6-6 when pinch-hitter John Patterson doubled in catcher Kirt Manwaring in the top of the eighth off Seanez.

Center fielder Roberto Kelly misplayed Patterson’s double. Kelly appeared to lose it and had to backpedal as the ball sailed over his head.