Stadium Is Zoned for Green Belts

He was only supposed to help Dodger fans forget about Mike Piazza, Fox overcome its many mistakes and lead a playoff push.

No wonder Shawn Green’s shoulders never seemed wide enough last season.

They do now.

The hot right fielder continued to deliver Wednesday night in a tight National League West race--establishing career highs with three home runs and seven runs batted in during a 13-1 victory over the Montreal Expos before 43,049 at Dodger Stadium that ended a season-high losing streak at five games.

The club’s leader in homers and runs batted in hit Nos. 33, 34 and 35 in his 14th career multi-homer game and fourth this season, increasing his RBI total 98.

Green became the first Dodger to hit three homers in a game since Kevin Elster accomplished the feat last April 11 against the San Francisco Giants in the first regular-season game at Pacific Bell Park.

Piazza was the last Dodger to have at least seven RBIs, doing it against the Philadelphia Phillies on Aug. 17, 1995.

“I will definitely remember this,” said Green, who took a curtain call after his final homer against reliever Masato Yoshii in the seventh.

“It was something that might not happen again, so I’m definitely going to enjoy this.”

Green’s three-run homer to left field in the second against Montreal starter Carl Pavano gave the Dodgers a 5-0 lead.

The ball glanced off the glove of left fielder Brad Wilkerson--but the Expos didn’t have a shot at Green’s last two homers.

The ball from his 420-foot, two-run shot against Pavano in the fourth landed in the middle of the right-field pavilion. His two-run blast against Yoshii also landed in the right-field pavilion.

“My swing feels very good right now,” said Green, batting .290. “The first one, [Wilkerson] almost made a great play on. The next two, I got some wood on. It felt great.”

Green helped the third-place Dodgers (66-54) remain three games behind the first-place Arizona Diamondbacks and two games behind the second-place San Francisco Giants with only their fifth victory in 15 games.

He powered the Dodgers past the Expos a night after they squandered a 1-0 ninth-inning lead in a 4-1 loss to the NL East’s last-place team, relieving some tension at Chavez Ravine.

“What I’m very hopeful of is that Shawn will build upon what he did tonight,” Manager Jim Tracy said. “I would like to see him swing with that type of authority the rest of the year.”

Not surprisingly, Expo Manager Jeff Torborg was impressed.

“That was a heck of an outing for Green. . . . He smoked us,” Torborg said. “He’s got such a pretty swing, and man, can he hit. He’s a load of a talent.”

The Dodgers had 20 hits, including four by Adrian Beltre, who batted atop the order for only the second time in his career as Tracy attempted to jump-start the struggling offense. Beltre also scored four runs and knocked in one run.

“I don’t mind batting leadoff at all,” said Beltre, who last did it May 18, 1999, against the Houston Astros at Dodger Stadium.

“I told the boss wherever he needs me, that’s fine with me. Wherever it’s going to work for the team, where it’s best for the team, that’s what I want to do.

“Leadoff, down low, whatever. I just want to do my job, hope that it works and we win.”

Mark Grudzielanek had four hits and three runs, and struggling Eric Karros hit his 13th home run.

Giovanni Carrara (3-1) benefited from the strong support in his third effective start of the season.

Carrara gave up four hits--including Peter Bergeron’s solo homer--in six solid innings while starting in place of injured right-hander James Baldwin.

Green made the biggest contribution to ruining Pavano’s season debut after recovering from 2000 surgery on his pitching elbow.

Pavano had not pitched in the majors since June 24 of last season and it showed.

He gave up 12 hits and eight runs in three-plus innings.

“The way we won was the big thing,” Green said. “A big game in the past has really got us going. Hopefully, this will be the same type of situation.”