Karros Gets Back on Ball

This is not some kind of Hollywood script. There is no miracle cure. You simply don’t sit out all but a few games of spring training and expect everything to be all right.

Dodger first baseman Eric Karros knew this would take some time, and although it has become frustrating at times, he realized he would have to endure the pain.

This is why the moment he hit a three-run home run Saturday that sparked the Dodgers’ 7-2 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in front of 51,064 at Dodger Stadium, it felt as if a season’s worth of frustration left his body.

Karros realizes his slump doesn’t end in one day. He’s still batting only .196 with six home runs and 21 runs driven in. After 44 games a year ago, he was batting .335 with nine homers and 32 RBIs.

But when you sit out the entire Grapefruit League schedule because of a strained hamstring and sore shoulder, then compound it later with a strained rib cage muscle during the season, you can’t expect to be Roy Hobbs and hit balls off the light towers.

“I got frustrated at times,” Karros said, “but it’s not like I was just completely overmatched. I never felt like I was getting beat by somebody out on the mound, I just wasn’t swinging like I was capable.

“Maybe I won’t hit .300, but I’m here to drive in runs. At the end of the year, I think I’ll be putting up similar numbers to what I’ve always done.”

So Karros came into the clubhouse Saturday afternoon, and was heading to the batting cage when Manager Tom Lasorda stopped him.

“He gave me two choices,” Karros said. “He said either I could take all the BP I wanted and take the day off or sit in the food room and just relax. It was a pretty easy choice.”

Lasorda said: “I just told him to relax. I didn’t want him to do a thing. We need his bat. And he came through tonight and that’s just what we needed.”

When it was all over, the Dodgers won their season-high fifth consecutive game, climbing into second place, 3 1/2 games behind the San Diego Padres.

If the Dodgers defeat the Phillies today, it will be their first four-game sweep against the Phillies since 1962.

“We’re just hitting our stride,” said second baseman Delino DeShields, who drove in two runs in the Dodgers’ four-run sixth inning, helping provide Pedro Astacio (3-3) with the victory. “It’s almost like we let everyone have their fun early. Now, it’s our turn.”

The Dodgers have scored 30 runs during their five-game winning streak, batting .270 with six home runs.

The opposition has scored only 10 runs in the last five games, batting .207 without a home run. The Dodgers have gone nine games without yielding a homer.

For awhile Saturday, it appeared that the Dodger streak might come to an end. Sid Fernandez cruised the first three innings, striking out seven of the first 10 batters. He was so dominant that after Roger Cedeno grounded to shortstop Mike Benjamin in the first inning, the next eight batters failed to even put the ball in play until Cedeno batted again in the fourth.

Cedeno fell behind 1-and-2, then drilled a pitch past Fernandez into center field for the Dodgers’ first hit. And just like that, Fernandez was no problem. Two pitches later, Mike Piazza slammed a single into right-center.

Karros then jumped on the next pitch and hit it into the right-field seats for a three-run homer.

The Dodgers put the game away in the sixth when DeShields hit a two-run single to center, and Mike Busch turned the game into a rout with a two-run homer off Steve Frey.

Astacio, meanwhile, continued his string of dazzling performances, yielding two or fewer earned runs in seven of his last eight starts. He yielded only one run in six innings, before turning the ball over to Chan Ho Park.

Antonio Osuna retired Mike Lieberthal with the bases loaded in the ninth for his first career save.