Dodger Win Is Twice as Nice for Karros

Eric Karros is a student of Dodger history, so the moment wasn’t lost on the longtime first baseman.

Or anyone else for that matter.

Karros became the first player in franchise history to hit two home runs in an inning, accomplishing the rare feat Tuesday night in a 14-6 victory over the Montreal Expos before 29,084 at Dodger Stadium.

Karros’ two-homer performance highlighted a nine-run sixth inning, helping the Dodgers break the game open against the Expos’ ineffective bullpen.

Karros was the best part of the show.

“The nice one was breaking the tie [with the Expos] with my first at-bat. The next one, I was trying to hit a fly ball and just got lucky,” said Karros, who became only the 34th player in baseball history to homer twice in an inning.

The Dodgers had a season-high six homers on a night Gary Sheffield, who leads the club with 40, was sidelined because of flu symptoms.

Karros hit his 29th and 30th homers in his 17th career multi-homer game and third this season.

Jim Leyritz played for Sheffield and made the most of the start, hitting his first homer with the Dodgers.

Starting pitcher Ismael Valdes hit his first career homer, Devon White his fourth this season and Todd Hundley his 22nd.

The Dodgers (63-61) had 16 hits against five Expo pitchers. That helped offset the Expos’ 13 hits.

Right-hander Terry Adams (6-6) worked 1 1/3 innings to get the victory, moving the Dodgers within eight games of first-place San Francisco in the National League West.

The Dodgers acknowledged the club’s all-time Los Angeles homer leader provided the biggest power boost.

“He’s a streaky hitter and right now he’s on one of those streaks,” said Manager Davey Johnson of Karros, who moved into the L.A. franchise lead this season and is fourth on the all-time franchise list with 241.

Karros is the 21st NL player to hit two homers in an inning. Thirteen players have done it in the American League.

The Dodgers also were involved the last time the accomplishment occurred, though they would rather not be reminded.

On April 23 last season, Fernando Tatis hit two grand slams against Chan Ho Park in an 11-run third inning in the St. Louis Cardinals’ 12-5 victory.

On Tuesday, Karros started the Dodgers’ big inning with a leadoff blast to left-center against reliever Julio Santana (0-4). He capped the scoring with a three-run shot against Anthony Telford.

The Dodgers sent 12 batters to the plate and had five hits in their highest-scoring inning this season.

“They hit a few homers tonight, obviously our [pitchers] didn’t have it,” Expo Manager Felipe Alou said.

Valdes, however, didn’t take advantage of the support.

The Expos scored three runs in the top of the sixth to tie the score, 5-5, and chase Valdes.

The right-hander has failed to get a victory in five starts in his second Dodger stint.