BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : DODGERS : Piazza’s Tip Hot for Karros

While everyone is trying to come up with the technical reasons for first baseman Eric Karros’ all-star season, Karros will tell you there’s no need to research further than a casual conversation he had over the winter with Mike Piazza.

“We were just talking about hitting one day,” Karros said, “and Mike says to me, ‘When you have four at-bats a game, you get 12 strikes. Are you telling me that you can’t hit the ball hard four times out of 12 times?’

“I know that Mike didn’t just come up with that on his own, but I never heard it put that way before. It made a lot of sense. You look at it that way, and it lets you know you’ve got a chance.”

Karros, a career .254 hitter, was batting .327 with 13 homers and 42 RBIs before Friday’s game.

“I don’t remember who told me that, I might have read it in Ted Williams’ book,” Piazza said of his batting tip. “The whole point was that no matter how much you break it down, you should always get a good pitch to hit.

“Obviously, Eric has taken it to heart.”

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Willie Banks is now scheduled to make his first start of the season Monday against the San Diego Padres. . . . Center fielder Roberto Kelly was scratched from the starting lineup with a sinus infection and replaced by rookie Roger Cedeno, who made his first major league start. . . . The Giants have moved up Mark Leiter’s start to today, and will start William VanLandingham on Sunday.