Dodgers Make Most of Second Chance

Eric Karros took advantage of a rarity Friday night, at least above the sandlot level or away from a golf course.

He got a do-over . . . a mulligan . . . a second chance, and he put it in the right-center field seats to send the Dodgers winging toward an 8-2 victory over the Montreal Expos before 51,573 at Dodger Stadium.

His 400-foot homer off Ugueth Urbina in the first inning scored three runs and came two pitches after Expo catcher Tim Spehr--a defensive specialist by reputation--bailed out when he approached the wall near his own dugout while chasing a pop foul. The ball dropped on the track, short of the stands, prolonging Karros’ at-bat and giving Spehr an error.

Shortly after Spehr settled embarrassed into his crouch, Karros drove in Todd Hollandsworth and Mike Piazza with his 26th homer of the season.

The Dodgers scored an additional run in the second inning on Hollandsworth’s RBI single, three more on Chad Curtis’ pinch-hit homer in the seventh--his second as a Dodger--and their final run on Raul Mondesi’s 18th homer, in the eighth inning.

The victory sent them eight games over the .500 mark for the first time this season and kept them even with the San Diego Padres in the National League West.

“We’ve been playing good baseball,” Karros said. “The real key was the other day when we lost six to one to St. Louis after winning four straight. Earlier, we would play good ball and then struggle for four or five games.”

This time they came back to win the series-ending game Thursday against the Cardinals and added a second consecutive victory in the first game of a nine-game home stand Friday night. They have won six of seven games.

“The thing is that we have to play good ball and not worry about anybody else,” Karros said. “There are still 40-some games, a quarter of a season left.”

They will pass more easily for the Dodgers if things mesh as they did Friday night. The runs came a swing at a time, the outs came in pairs and the pitching was happy about both.

Montreal leadoff hitters reached base in each of the first three innings, only to be erased by double plays. Again in the sixth, after Shane Andrews had led off the inning with his 17th homer, the Dodgers got yet another infield grounder that they turned into a double play.

Ditto in the seventh, after F.P. Santangelo’s RBI single scored Rondell White.

The five double plays were one short of a club record, and four of them were started by second baseman Delino DeShields.

“The pitcher’s best friend,” said Pedro Astacio, the beneficiary of the defense. He struggled at times, giving up nine hits in his six innings, but only two runs in evening his record at 7-7. “Everything is together, the hitting, the pitching, the defense.”

Said Manager Bill Russell: “It just showed you how well he was pitching. Guys would get on, but he would get his sinker over and the guys would hit it on the ground into the double play.”

Astacio, who got two innings of relief help from Rafael Osuna, was also the beneficiary of Hollandsworth’s hitting in the leadoff position. Hollandsworth is the seventh Dodger to bat leadoff this season and the first to excel at it, getting three hits Friday to extend his average in the No. 1 spot to .357.

He has batted everywhere in the order this season, except cleanup and ninth, and was comfortably ensconced in the sixth spot until Russell considered the production at the top of the order and decided a transfusion was necessary.

“The main thing I was concerned about was him changing his swing [to be more like a leadoff man], taking a lot more pitches,” Russell said. “But he hasn’t.”

Instead, he’s hitting better, and the Dodgers are the better for it.

That, and the homers and the pitching and outs that come two at a time.

And the occasional do-over.