Piazza to ‘String Along a Few Games

Mike Piazza felt good Monday. So good, in fact, he said he could play in an emergency.

There was no chance of that. Thankful that the left hamstring strain Piazza suffered Sunday wasn’t more serious, the Dodgers weren’t about risk to putting their catcher and leading batting back on the field 24 hours after the injury.

There was more chance coach Mike Scioscia would catch Monday.

Piazza says he’ll be back “in a day or two.” Manager Bill Russell, a little more cautious, say “it could be three or four days.”

But everybody agreed that the injury to Piazza’s left leg, his third hamstring injury in the last two years, wasn’t serious.

“It has responded well to treatment,” he said. “It tightened up a little after dinner [Sunday night]. But I’ll be surprised if I’m out anything longer than a couple of days.”

Piazza says he doesn’t think the injury, which occurred in the first inning Sunday after he had singled to left and was taking second on the subsequent throw, didn’t occur because he accelerated.

“I think,” he said, “it was because of the turn.”

*

It was just a pinch-hitting assignment in the seventh inning, just a routine groundout to short.

It was, however, anything but routine for Brett Butler.

Atlanta was the first team he played with. Atlanta is where he makes his off-season home.

And now, with plans to retire at season’s end, Butler, 40, was getting his final at-bat, at least in the regular season, in Atlanta.

He took it all in--the crowd, wife Eveline sitting in the stands with their kids, even a sign that read, “Thanks for the memories.

“I reflected on it,” said Butler of the moment. “It was kind of special. I saw that sign. Some people still remembered. That was nice.

“I would have liked to have gotten a hit, but hey, I didn’t expect to play this long anyway.”

*

The Braves drew 196,211 for the four-game series against the Dodgers. That is a franchise record, including the years the club was based in Milwaukee and Boston. The old record for a four-game series was 192,253, set in 1993 against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

ON DECK

* Opponent--New York Mets, three games.

* Site--Dodger Stadium.

* Tonight--7.

* TV--Fox Sports West 2, tonight and Wednesday.

* Radio--KABC (790), KWKW (1330).

* Records--Dodgers 52-47, Mets 56-42.

* Record vs. Mets--3-2.

TONIGHT’S GAME

DODGERS’ TOM CANDIOTTI (5-3, 3.15 ERA) vs. METS’ MARK CLARK (7-6, 4.04 ERA)

* Update--It doesn’t get any easier for the Dodgers. They come home to play the New York Mets, winners of five in a row, with Mike Piazza, Tripp Cromer and Gary Gagne hampered because of medical problems. Piazza, who has a strained left hamstring, may miss all three games, although he might be able to pinch-hit by Wednesday or Thursday. Cromer, who has a bruise at the base of his left hand after getting nicked by a Raul Mondesi line drive in batting practice, still reported soreness Monday. Gagne, who has been sidelined because of a viral infection that he hasn’t been able to shake on this trip, is hoping doctors in Los Angeles can find some effective medication to put him on. After the three games against the Mets, the Dodgers continue the homestand with three against the Philadelphia Phillies and two against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

* Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.--Dodgers’ Dennis Reyes (1-1, 4.97) vs. undecided.

* Thursday, 7 p.m.--Dodgers’ Pedro Astacio (6-7, 4.15) vs. Mets’ Rick Reed (7-4, 2.94).