Park’s Streak Stays Alive With Giant Hopes Fading Away : Baseball: San Francisco’s magic number is one after Dodgers’ 5-3 victory.

Chan Ho Park was supposed to establish himself as a dominant pitcher this season, fulfilling huge expectations ahead of schedule.

He set the bar high with back-to-back solid seasons, and this one could have been special for him and the Dodgers.

Things obviously didn’t go as planned.

Park has tried to take something positive from the bad experience, and he was encouraged Thursday night in a 5-3 victory over the San Francisco Giants.

Park (12-10) overcame his command problems to win his sixth consecutive decision. Closer Jeff Shaw pitched a scoreless ninth to earn his 34th save.

Gary Sheffield hit his 29th home run and Devon White had two run-scoring hits to lead the nine-hit attack before a crowd of 34,589 at Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers (72-81) took two of three from the Giants (83-70), who have dropped five of their last six games.

The idle Arizona Diamondbacks’ magic number is now one in the National League West and they face the Giants tonight in San Francisco.

Again Thursday, Park threw too many pitches throughout his six-inning effort. However, Manager Davey Johnson prefers to accentuate the positive because he’s trying to build Park’s confidence for 2000.

“I’ve seen Chan Ho do a lot more things lately that I’ve liked,” Johnson said. “I’ve seen him go out and make the pitches he needs to make, and not try to overthrow everything all the time.

“I’ve seen him try to stay relaxed more when things are going on around him. That’s the Chan Ho I expected to see all year, and I’ll take it now to have something positive for him to build on.”

Against the Giants, Park gave up five hits, five walks and three earned runs. He failed to locate the strike zone consistently, throwing only 58 strikes in 114 pitches. Park also threw two wild pitches but still left with a 4-3 lead.

Park has a 4.62 earned-run average during his winning streak, but the Dodgers have averaged 7.2 runs during that span.

“I feel like I’m pitching better now,” Park said. “I just want to keep trying to learn from everything this year.”

Park has endured some growing pains this season.

He has been distracted by his still-unresolved contract situation and rattled at the start of the season because of catcher Todd Hundley’s problems behind the plate. Park got out of whack mechanically while trying to compensate for Hundley’s poor throwing, and he hasn’t totally regained his form--or confidence.

Park acknowledges he regressed as the homers and losses mounted, often pitching defensively.

“This has been a really difficult year for me,” said Park, who has rejected the Dodgers’ last two contract offers. “I never had anything like this happen to me before.

“I struggle with my confidence a lot because I don’t pitch the way I should. I need to remember to always have my confidence.”

Park received an exemption from South Korea’s mandatory 28-month military service because he was a member of the country’s Asian Games gold-medal winning team. However, will return to his native country shortly before the season ends to complete four weeks of basic training.

“I just want to put the season [in the past],” Park said. “I want to do much better next season.”