Mondesi Is Smooth and in a Groove

Raul Mondesi broke out of a season-opening slump when he shaved his head, and he has continued to go with the bald look.

Mondesi, who went four for four in the Dodgers’ loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday night, extended his streak to a seven consecutive hits with two singles and a two-run homer before striking out in an 8-3 victory over the Pirates on Thursday night before 26,664 at Dodger Stadium.

“He’s superstitious from the word go,” Manager Tom Lasorda said. “He’ll do anything he can to get those hits.”

Mondesi, who also scored twice as the Dodgers avoided being swept by the Pirates, is batting .367 (18 for 49) with two home runs, a triple, three doubles, eight runs and eight RBIs in his last 12 games.

“Nothing has changed, but the fact is he’s become selective,” Lasorda said of Mondesi, who has raised his average to .257. “You saw what he was looking like before, he was chasing everything they threw up there. When he was in a slump, he was swinging at a lot of bad balls.”

“The whole secret has been working the count and not swinging at bad pitches,” said Mondesi, who has worked on being more patient at the plate with batting coach Reggie Smith.

Catcher Mike Piazza, who came into the game with a league-leading average of .363, was two for four and scored a run to raise his average to .366.

First baseman Eric Karros had two singles and two walks, scored a run and drove in a run.

Ramon Martinez, scheduled to start for the Dodgers, was scratched because of flu. Martinez, who has won 10 consecutive decisions, reported to Dodger Stadium but was sent home.

Tom Candiotti (4-5), scheduled to pitch tonight’s game against the Cincinnati Reds, replaced Martinez and gave up one earned run on five hits before he was relieved by Mark Guthrie with two outs in the seventh inning.

“Ramon had a 102 temperature,” Lasorda said. “There’s no telling how long he’s going to be out, but I think Tommy did an outstanding job coming in under the situation he did.”

Antonio Osuna worked a scoreless ninth inning to extend his streak to 20 1/3 scoreless innings.

Osuna has given up 11 hits, seven walks (five intentional), with 21 strikeouts during his scoreless streak, which has spanned 15 appearances.

Since the Dodgers were off Monday, Candiotti was working on his normal four days’ rest. But he was shaky at the start, giving up three runs in the first inning on an error, a two-run homer. a single and a wild pitch.

“It wasn’t any big deal,” Candiotti said of the emergency start. “I was here before batting practice, so I went out and did my work and started focusing on the Pirates instead of Cincinnati.”

Candiotti trailed, 2-0, after two batters.

Leadoff man Mike Kingery reached on a fielding error by Karros, and left fielder Al Martin belted a three-and-two pitch into the right-field bleachers. Candiotti wild-pitched in a run with two outs to make it 3-0.

But the Dodgers answered with five runs on five hits in the first inning as they sent nine men to the plate.

Piazza singled in Delino DeShields, who had stolen second, with one out, and starter Paul Wagner left because of an injured shoulder.

Pirate closer Dan Miceli (1-3), who finished Wednesday’s game, replaced Wagner with a two-ball count on Karros and completed the walk. After Mondesi singled to load the bases, Blowers cleared the bases with a two-run single to left.

Martin charged the ball and had it go through his legs for an error, which allowed Mondesi to score and Blowers to advance to second. Roger Cedeno, dropped from first to seventh in the batting order, singled in Blowers to give the Dodgers a two-run lead.