Mondesi, Dodgers Clean Up

Dodger right fielder Raul Mondesi listened to the taunts and boos from the crowd. He sensed panic in the clubhouse. He watched exasperation from his teammates.

Mondesi merely shrugged, kept trying to tell everyone there’s no reason to be worried, and on Monday night, proved to all that everything will be just fine.

Mondesi single-handedly brought the Dodgers out of their offensive slumber, and ended the worst drought of his career, leading the Dodgers to a 10-4 rout of the Chicago Cubs at Dodger Stadium.

The paid crowd of 39,003, which was beginning to wonder if Mondesi would ever get another hit, watched him end his zero-for-24 hitless skein with a single in the second inning. To prove it was no fluke, Mondesi then hit a three-run homer in the third inning. For an encore, he drove in two more runs with a bases-loaded single in the eighth, giving him three hits and a season-high five RBIs.

“I knew I’d be all right,” said Mondesi, who sat in the video room afterward watching his at-bats with hitting coach Reggie Smith. “I think everybody was worried about me, but me. I kept hearing people saying I was putting pressure on myself because I was batting cleanup. Hey, I was struggling before that.

“It’s just that I’ve never been through anything like this before. It was frustrating not hitting the ball. I told my teammates tonight that I was going to come out of it.”

He had gone 13 games and 51 at-bats without a homer; 12 games and 11 at-bats without producing a hit with runners in scoring position; eight games without scoring a run; and six games in the cleanup spot without producing a hit. He was hitting .194.

He tried everything to shake the slump. He shaved his head. He trashed his locker. He arrived five hours before game time for early batting practice. He arrived less than an hour before game time without participating in any activities. Nothing seemed to work.

“I talked to Mondy more the last few days than I spoke to my wife,” Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda said. “He got down. He really got down. I figured he’d come out of it. And we figured the best way is for him to play his way out it.”

The Dodgers, who anxiously were awaiting for someone besides catcher Mike Piazza to start hitting, fed off Mondesi for their second-biggest offensive game of the season. They scored more runs (four) in the game’s first three innings than they produced in the previous 30 innings. Everyone in the first seven spots in the lineup got a hit or drove in a run by the fifth inning, including Piazza’s fourth homer. And by the end of the game, six players in the lineup had RBIs, and seven had hits.

“I knew it was just a matter of time,” said second baseman Delino DeShields, who reached base three times, scored one run, drove in another and stole a base. “Mondy just isn’t going to hit .200. The guy’s got too many tools. He’s got more tools than Black and Decker.”

It’s premature to declare the Dodgers are out of their horrendous hitting slump. After all, the starting pitcher they faced was Kevin Foster. He not only is yielding a 7.03 earned-run average this season, but also has surrendered a league-leading 10 home runs in only 32 innings. He also gave up a major league-leading 32 homers last season.

But when you’ve been hitting the way the Dodgers have lately, who’s going to be choosy?

Certainly, Lasorda’s timing for a team meeting was impeccable. He could be heard screaming for 10 minutes before the game, imploring his players to be aggressive and play smart baseball.

They came right out and went down 1-2-3 in the first inning, but by the time the third inning ended, they had a 5-1 lead with Ismael Valdes on the mound. It was over. Valdes (2-2) cruised to the victory, yielding six hits and four runs (three earned) in seven innings.

“When I saw those five runs, it made me relax,” said Valdes, whose teammates had scored only 14 runs for him all season.

The Dodgers, who remain 4 1/2 games behind the division-leading San Diego Padres, realize that with just a little bit of hitting they could easily be sitting atop the standings.

“Everyone else had their fun, now it’s our turn,” DeShields said. “I think this team is ready to turn it on. I wouldn’t be surprised to see us win 16 of the next 20, or something like that. I think we’re going to be just fine.”