BASEBALL DAILY REPORT : Piazza Finally Gets Something Extra

Dodger catcher Mike Piazza didn’t tip his cap and didn’t acknowledge the ovation from his own bench, but simply stood on second base Wednesday afternoon, grinning.

His first-inning double off San Francisco Giant starter Mark Leiter ended his extra-base drought after 21 consecutive singles at 55 at-bats and 60 plate appearances.

“We were going to stop the game and get the ball for him,” Brett Butler and Delino DeShields each said.

Piazza, a bit sensitive about the teasing considering that he is batting .383, said: “They didn’t tell me that. Nobody joked with me. I would have been a little disappointed.

“I’m not going to say I’ve been frustrated, but it has been bothersome. If they’re content on giving me base hits, I’ll take them.”

If nothing else, Piazza said, his spirits were lifted when he realized that although he doesn’t have a home run this season, neither does Giant third baseman Matt Williams, who also averages more than 30 homers a season.

“I think home runs can be overrated,” Piazza said. “If I hit .300 and drive in 100 runs and hit 15 to 25 homers, I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad year.”

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DeShields is batting .750 (six for eight) with two doubles, a triple and a home run in the two starts against the Leiter brothers--Mark of the Giants and Al of the Florida Marlins--and .172 with a double and triple against everyone else. He needed a triple in his last at-bat to become the first Dodger to hit for the cycle since Wes Parker in 1970. Instead, he walked in the sixth inning, and came out of the game in the seventh. . . . Dodger pitching coach Dave Wallace left the team and flew home to Boston on Wednesday morning to be with his seriously ill father. Manager Tom Lasorda made all of the pitching moves. . . . Fifty years ago today, Jackie Robinson played his first game in the Dodger organization. He went four for five with a homer and three RBIs for the triple-A Montreal Royals against the Jersey City Giants. He went on to bat a league-leading .349 that season.