It Looks Pretty to Karros

A notorious slow starter, Dodger first baseman Eric Karros has outdone himself this season.

Karros, who hit five home runs in his first 36 games in 1996, hit only three in his first 144 at-bats and 41 games this season.

But he is flourishing now.

Karros hit his fourth home run in his last 31 at-bats, and the Dodgers extended their winning streak to three games with a 5-3 victory over the Florida Marlins on Monday night before a paid crowd of 48,921 at Dodger Stadium.

The Marlins had won seven of their last eight road games.

Todd Zeile and Raul Mondesi hit solo home runs as the Dodgers, whose seven-game home run streak ended in Sunday’s 2-0 win over the Atlanta Braves, tied their season-high for home runs in a game.

The Dodgers have hit six home runs in their last three games and 14 in their last nine.

“[Home runs] have been missing for a while, and now they’re starting to come out,” Dodger Manager Bill Russell said. “These guys have put up numbers the last few years, and now they’re [producing].”

Karros, who lost a home run during the Dodgers’ three-game series against the Marlins last month in Miami when an umpire mistakenly ruled that the ball didn’t hit the scoreboard, drilled a 1-and-0 pitch into the right field box seats just inside the foul pole, just out of the reach of right fielder Cliff Floyd, to drive in Mike Piazza, who had led off the fourth inning with a single.

It gave the Dodgers a 3-1 lead.

“You’re not going to hit many home runs that are shorter than that,” Karros said. “You talk about that, but nobody’s going to talk about the home run I had taken away in Florida or the line outs in the last week and a half. The big thing will be that I had a cheap home run, but I don’t care. I’ll take it.”

Zeile, who had one hit in 10 at-bats against the Marlins, belted a hanging curve from Florida starter Rick Helling (1-3) into the left field bleachers with one out in the second inning to give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead.

Zeile, who has hit in five consecutive games and eight of his last nine, is batting .294 with four home runs and five RBIs over that span. After getting only 10 hits and six RBIs in his first 26 games as a Dodger, he is hitting a season-best .229.

With the Dodgers leading, 4-3, after Kurt Abbott hit a two-run home run in the seventh inning, Mondesi belted a leadoff homer in the eighth.

He drilled a 2-and-1 pitch from reliever Mark Hutton into the Dodger bullpen for his 11th home run and his second in the last three games. Dodger closer Todd Worrell, who was warming up, caught the ball.

“That will be the only ESPN TV time I get,” Worrell said. “Usually they show me giving up a bomb or something. But I was on the other end of this one.”

Dodger starter Chan Ho Park, who didn’t give up a home run in his first 18 appearances in 1996, hasn’t had as much luck this season, giving up six home runs in his first 10 appearances.

The home run almost did in Park (3-2), who gave up five hits, including two home runs, and three runs in 6 1/3 innings.

Park, who who gave up a leadoff home run to Floyd in the fourth inning, was lifted for reliever Antonio Osuna one batter after giving up the two-run shot to Abbott with no outs in the seventh. Abbott’s homer had cut the Dodger lead to 4-3.

Osuna, recalled on May 14, was ineffective, giving up back to-back two-out singles to pinch-hitter Todd Dunwoody and Edgar Renteria before being replaced by Mark Guthrie with runners at first and third.

Guthrie struck out pinch-hitter Jeff Conine to end the inning.