Dodgers Find It’s Cool to Stay Hot

The colder the weather, the hotter the Dodgers’ bats seem to get.

Right fielder Raul Mondesi and catcher Todd Hundley hit consecutive home runs in a five-run fifth inning Wednesday, rallying the Dodgers to a 6-4 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks before a crowd of 29,042 on a damp and chilly night at Dodger Stadium.

Mondesi broke a 2-2 tie when he victimized Arizona starter Andy Benes (0-1) with two out in the fifth. Hundley, whose fourth-inning single matched his hit total in his previous two games, followed with a home run to right, his first home run and first run batted in as a Dodger.

“It’s good to get it out of the way,” Hundley said of the home run. “I’m looking forward to getting better as the days go by.”

The back-to-back home runs by Mondesi and Hundley were the first by the Dodgers since August 29, when Mondesi and Bobby Bonilla pulled it off against the Mets at Dodger Stadium. Mondesi, who hit two home runs on Opening Day, leads the team with three home runs and eight RBIs.

Third baseman Adrian Beltre celebrated his 21st birthday by getting two hits, including a double that opened the floodgates in the fifth.

“We’ve been swinging the bats well,” Manager Davey Johnson said. “Mondi did it again. . . . It’s good to see our catcher get a couple of hits.”

Johnson was especially pleased with starter Ismael Valdes, who pitched into the eighth inning and gave up five hits.

“He really threw the ball excellent,” Johnson said. “He got a little bit tired in that last inning, but I thought he was crisp before that.”

Mondesi’s explosive start has helped launch the Dodgers to one of their fastest starts in their 42 seasons in Los Angeles. They were 2-0 in 14 of their 42 seasons in California, but this is only the fifth time they have been 3-0. The last time was in 1995, when they won the NL West title. They were 6-0 in 1981, 4-0 in 1978 and 3-0 in 1974--and advanced to the World Series each of those seasons. “Some good things have been happening,” Johnson said.

Among the best of those good things was the 7 2/3-inning performance by Valdes. He gave up five hits--three of them in the fourth inning, when the Diamondbacks scored two runs--and struck out five before being replaced by Onan Masaoka with two men on base in the eighth.

Masaoka got out of the inning when Travis Lee popped up to Hundley in foul territory on the first pitch.

Mel Rojas gave up consecutive home runs to Matt Williams and Luis Gonzalez leading off the ninth, ending a streak of 8 2/3 scoreless innings from the bullpen. Jeff Shaw relieved him and retired the next three batters without incident, earning his 100th career save.

“I feel pretty good the whole game. I was making my pitches in and out and I had control,” Valdes said. “We have to remember, this is one game. It is my first outing and I’ve got more starts to come.

“My defense and offense, I want to thank my teammates for that.”

And for getting the job done in a relatively swift 2 hours, 24 minutes, so they could retreat to the warm clubhouse.

“As a group of ballplayers, we were trying to win after nine innings,” Valdes joked, referring to the Dodgers’ extra-inning triumphs in the first two games of the series.

Valdes, who was 4-0 with a 1.48 earned-run average in spring training, cruised until the fourth inning. That’s when he was tagged for three hits, including a two-run home run by Gonzalez.

The Dodgers began to get to Benes in the fourth, when Hundley singled and Karros drew a walk. They did their real damage in the fifth, when they sent 10 men to the plate and scored five times.

Beltre was the catalyst because of his alert baserunning. He grounded a shot through the left side of the infield, under the shortstop’s glove, and never hesitated as he dashed for second. The throw by left fielder Gonzalez was slightly off line, and Beltre was safe.

Valdes laid down a sacrifice Benes had to field, moving Beltre to third. Eric Young then hit a bouncer between third baseman Williams and the foul line, a double that scored Beltre with Young’s first RBI of the season. Young scored the tying run when White dumped a single into short left.