Dodgers Power Forward

Each swing energized the Dodgers and zapped the San Diego Padres, who first squandered a big opportunity Thursday night in L.A.’s 7-4 victory at Qualcomm Stadium.

After Dodger reliever Giovanni Carrara cheaply escaped a bases-loaded jam in the seventh, giving up only the tying run, Gary Sheffield, Shawn Green and Adrian Beltre hit solo homers in the eighth against reliever Rudy Seanez.

The Dodgers’ first three-homer inning of the season helped them take the opener of a four-game series before 21,221.

Carrara (1-1) got a double-play grounder to get out of the seventh, then Sheffield hit his 15th homer and Green his team-leading 19th on consecutive pitches against Seanez (0-1).

Beltre hit his sixth homer with two out for the Dodgers (41-37), who have won three in a row.

Left-hander Jesse Orosco struck out two in a scoreless eighth, and closer Jeff Shaw worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his 20th save.

“It’s a very good win for us, and obviously the homers we hit in the eighth were something special,” said Manager Jim Tracy, who fielded his projected everyday lineup for only the second time this season.

“It was something that we had talked about. We felt like the middle of our lineup would be capable of doing that.”

The Dodgers went ahead, 4-2, with a four-run fifth against Padre rookie starter Brian Lawrence.

The Padres (37-42) rallied to tie the score, 4-4, with runs in the fifth and seventh, but they also bungled their bases-loaded opportunity.

In the fifth, light-hitting catcher Rick Wilkins, batting .143 entering the game, hit the third homer against starter Luke Prokopec--a leadoff solo shot to left-center.

Prokopec, winless since May 26, gave up six hits and three runs.

Lawrence gave up seven hits and four runs in seven innings, He had six strikeouts.

In his first big league start last Saturday, the right-hander pitched 7 1/3 strong innings in a 6-2 victory at Dodger Stadium.

Carrara made timely pitches in relief of Prokopec, who was suffering from flu symptoms.

The Padres had tied the score at 4-4 in the seventh and still had the bases loaded. With the infield in, Carrara struck out Damian Jackson, then Mark Grudzielanek, who made an error earlier in the inning, started an inning-ending double play on Mark Kotsay’s grounder.

“The job Carrara did, getting out of that seventh inning, was obviously the ballgame right there,” Tracy said. “He made some great pitches.”

Green enjoyed the back-to-back home runs.

“When we can do that, it obviously takes some of the pressure off other guys in our lineup,” he said. “But Gio was also huge.

“The big thing was to get out of the seventh with only one run. We came back the next inning with the heart of our lineup up.”

Prokopec got off to a slow start.

With one out in the first, Kotsay hit a solo homer to right to give the Padres a 1-0 lead, and Bubba Trammell hit a one-out homer to left in the second to extend the lead to 2-0.

Meanwhile, Lawrence was cruising against the Dodgers again. He retired the side in order in the first three innings, and 11 in a row.

Sheffield provided the Dodgers’ first hit with a two-out infield single in the fourth, and it appeared they might not get many more.

Then the Dodgers got into a groove in the fifth, batting around and scoring four runs.

Paul Lo Duca, the team’s sparkplug, got the Dodgers started with a leadoff double, and Eric Karros, who sat out five games because of back stiffness, singled to put runners on the corners.

The Dodgers cut the lead to 2-1 on Beltre’s double, and tied the score, 2-2, when Alex Cora followed with a single.

Cora advanced to second on Prokopec’s sacrifice bunt, putting two runners in scoring position for Tom Goodwin, whose two-run single to left gave the Dodgers a 4-2 lead. Goodwin, though, was thrown out stretching for a double.