Lasorda’s Bullying Pays

Todd Hollandsworth walked past Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda and grimaced. He couldn’t bear to look. He tried not to listen. It was no use.

Lasorda berated Hollandsworth in the dugout, asking aloud why he can look like Albert Belle in batting practice and hit like Rafael Belliard during games.

Hollandsworth promptly belted his first home run of the season Saturday, then hit another, stealing the show in the Dodgers’ 4-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium.

“As soon as I hit that first one,” Hollandsworth said, “I said, ‘There, take that.’ That was in my mind all the way around the bases.”

Lasorda conceded that he was trying to agitate Hollandsworth as a motivational tool. He wanted Hollandsworth mad. He wanted him to get even.

“I told [coach Bill] Russell, ‘I’m going to really get Todd teed off at me, watch this,’ ” Lasorda said. “I said, ‘What is it with you? I see you hitting balls in the stands during BP, but you can’t hit the ball out of the infield during the game.

“ ‘What are you, a Punch-and-Judy hitter? What are you doing?’ ”

Hollandsworth, who had not homered since Aug. 2, 1995--spanning 91 at-bats--was furious. Sure, Lasorda had tried this sort of thing plenty of times. No matter. It still had Hollandsworth fuming.

“You don’t want to hear it, you try to blank it out,” Hollandsworth said. “You know he’s not doing it to tear you down. He’s trying to pump you up.

“But you want so bad to come back to the dugout and just say, ‘I told you so.’ ”

Said Lasorda: “Hey, some guys, you pat on the back. Some guys, you hug. Some guys, you chew them out.

“I just knew it was time to wake him up.”

Hollandsworth, who went three for four with two homers and two runs batted in, certainly has gotten the Dodgers’ attention. He is batting .400 since April 16, and until further notice will now be starting in left field every game against right-handed pitchers.

Hollandsworth probably will platoon with Billy Ashley when he returns from the disabled list this week. And Chad Fonville will be used in a special utility role, starting several days a week in different positions.

“I was standing out there in the ninth,” Hollandsworth said, “just thinking how happy I was to be out there and contributing. Hey, two wins in a row is a streak, right?”

This is the first time this season that the Dodgers have won successive games on the road.

Hollandsworth, who struggled so badly that the Dodgers were considering sending him to the minors last month, believes the worst is over. He has begun to relax and play with confidence, and a little piece of hitting advice from teammate Delino DeShields came in handy.

DeShields suggested to Hollandsworth that his swing was a little long, and to try choking up on the bat handle. Hollandsworth figured he’d give it a try, and even when he struck out the first time up, he hit a long foul that let him know something was right.

Then, in the fifth inning with the game scoreless, Hollandsworth stepped up against Alan Benes. Benes fell behind 2-and-1, came back with a fastball and Hollandsworth hit it into the upper deck.

In the seventh, after the Cardinals tied the game off Dodger starter Ismael Valdes, Hollandsworth delivered again. This time, he hit a 1-and-0 slider over the right-field fence, and DeShields couldn’t help but take delight when he returned to the dugout.

“We just smiled, laughed and joked a little bit,” DeShields said. “He knew he was onto something.”

The Dodgers added two runs in the eighth when Raul Mondesi hit a two-run homer, providing Valdes (3-2) his third victory in his last four starts. Todd Worrell pitched the ninth for his eighth save.

“We believe in ourselves,” DeShields said. “We have a lot of confidence. It’s not like we don’t have the players.”

Valdes yielded only four hits and two runs in 7 2/3 innings.

“I think it’s time to wake up,” he said. “We have a lot of talent, a lot of ability. We’re a different team now. The bench is much more alive. We have more confidence.

“We’re a team again.”