Dodgers Get All Rapped Up, 5-2 : Baseball: Marlin pitcher registers career-high nine strikeouts as Florida gains split of series.

Florida pitcher Pat Rapp, surprising even himself, registered a career-high nine strikeouts in the first six innings as the Marlins beat the Dodgers, 5-2, Sunday before a paid crowd of 35,578 at Dodger Stadium.

Rapp struck out three of the first five hitters he faced, and got leadoff hitter Delino DeShields, left fielder Roberto Kelly and first baseman Eric Karros twice each.

“I’ve never seen so many guys walking back to the dugout when I’m out there,” said Rapp, who didn’t allow a run and allowed only four hits before he was removed from the game because of a back injury in the seventh inning. “I was hitting my spots so good today that I was striking them out.”

Injured in a collision with Kelly while covering first base in the sixth inning, Rapp was removed from the game because of a stiff lower back after throwing two pitches to Dodger center fielder Raul Mondesi to open the seventh inning.

“To me it was almost a career game if I didn’t have to come out,” Rapp said.

Marlin catcher Charles Johnson, who hit a two-run, two-out homer in the ninth inning, agreed.

“He pitched very well today,” Johnson said. “He was very aggressive and he stayed down in the strike zone. When he keeps the ball down, he’s almost unhittable because his ball moves tremendously.”

Rapp struggled only in the sixth inning, when the Dodgers loaded the bases after back-to-back singles by DeShields and Jose Offerman and an intentional walk to catcher Mike Piazza.

But Rapp induced Karros to fly out to center and got Kelly to ground out to first as the Marlins split the four-game series with the Dodgers.

“I thought Rapp might have pitched his best game today,” Florida Manager Rene Lachemann said. “He shut out a very good lineup.”

But it’s a lineup that hasn’t been producing.

The Dodgers collected only six hits while being shut out for the first seven innings.

“We’ve got four guys on our ballclub hitting .300 but what we’re not doing is cashing them in,” Manager Tom Lasorda said after the Dodgers collected fewer than 10 hits for the fourth time in their last five games. They have scored two runs or less in nine of their last 13 games.

“We’re hitting the ball and getting on base, but we haven’t been able to get the base hit with runners in scoring position,” Lasorda said after his team stranded eight runners. “I think they’re trying too hard. I guarantee you it’s not because of lack of effort.”

Shut out 10 times this season, the highest total in the majors, the Dodgers avoided being blanked again when Karros hit a two-run homer off relief pitcher Terry Mathews with two outs in the eighth inning to make the score 3-2.

But Dodger closer Todd Worrell, who hadn’t pitched in nine days, gave up a two-run homer to Johnson with two outs in the ninth inning as the Dodgers (36-37) fell one game under .500 and wasted an opportunity to gain on the Colorado Rockies (40-33), who lost to the New York Mets.

“The thing we need to emphasize is we’ve got to do the job when we have opportunities,” said Karros, who flew out to center with the bases loaded and one out in the sixth inning.

Dodger starter Ismael Valdes (5-6) allowed only two runs on five hits in seven innings.

Valdes, who won five consecutive games last month, has compiled a 7.04 earned-run average in losing his last four starts.

Valdes struck out seven coming off his worst outing of the season. He gave up eight runs in 3 2/3 innings in an 8-0 loss at Cincinnati last Sunday.