Hollandsworth Leads the Way for Dodgers

MONTREAL — Todd Hollandsworth sensed a feeling of panic.

In a year in which the Dodgers can ill afford patience, knowing that a failure to reach the playoffs could result in a rash of firings and personnel moves, Hollandsworth realizes the urgency.

Perhaps one game won’t erase the uncertainty whether Hollandsworth can be the Dodgers’ everyday leadoff hitter, but after an 8-3 victory Saturday night over the Montreal Expos at Olympic Stadium, who could blame him for feeling as if the weight of the world was lifted off his shoulders?

“It was a good feeling, believe me,” Hollandsworth said. “We put pressure on them tonight, scored consistently, and hopefully we can sustain this.”

Hollandsworth is the first to concede that he’s not the prototype leadoff hitter, but this night, he was the catalyst for an offense that scored its most runs in a nine-inning game since April 13 in a 13-4 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Hollandsworth, who has heard his own teammates privately mumbling for the club to trade for a leadoff hitter, had two hits, reached base three times, scored two runs and drove in a run.

And for the first time since April 22--spanning 90 at-bats--he even drew a walk.

Hollandsworth and No. 2 hitter Wilton Guerrero reached base six times, making it easy for everyone. The Dodgers’ first five hitters of their revamped lineup drove in seven runs and scored six.

“There isn’t a soul on the face of he earth who can put more pressure on me than I’ve been putting on myself,” Hollandsworth said. “I’ve been struggling. I’ve just been trying to do too many things.”

Fred Claire, Dodger executive vice president, made it clear he has no intentions of trading for a leadoff hitter. If Brett Butler is forced to retire because of his shoulder injury, the Dodgers likely would recall center fielder Roger Cedeno, who is hitting .380 with a .488 on-base percentage at triple-A Albuquerque.

“I don’t think if you have a leadoff man getting on base 33-35% of the time that would solve all of our problems,” Claire said. “I don’t think you can isolate it and say that’s it. We just haven’t been producing runs.”

It’s up to Manager Bill Russell how long he’ll keep Hollandsworth in the leadoff spot, but instead of dropping him in the order Saturday, he made perhaps the boldest move of his young managerial career. He demoted cleanup hitter Eric Karros to the No. 6 spot in the batting order and replaced him with Raul Mondesi. It’s the lowest Karros had batted since July 26, 1994.

Russell knew the lineup shuffle probably would upset Karros, but he also is aware it is no time to spare feelings.

“You do it for a reason,” Russell said. “If that’s what it takes, that’s what you have to do. Is it a coincidence [tonight]? Who knows? But you try it, and it works.

“I hope [it’s a wake-up call].”

It made Russell look like the second coming of Casey Stengel this night. Everyone in the lineup, with the exception of Karros, produced at least one hit or drove in a run. The Dodgers had four hits and two sacrifice flies with runners in scoring position for only the second time since April 13.

Certainly, it made life a whole lot easier for starter Hideo Nomo (5-2), who struck out 11 in 8 1/3 innings, giving up six hits.

It was the first time Nomo has struck out 10 or more batters since Aug. 15 at St. Louis. That was a streak of 16 starts in which Nomo failed to strike out 10--the longest drought of his professional career, including five years in Japan.

“His fastball had a little more explosion to it than we saw in L.A.,” Expo catcher Darrin Fletcher said. “And he had that split-fingered pitch working.

“I call it the ‘Oriental Death Pitch.’ ”

Nomo never gave the Expos a chance. He limited the top five batters in the order to two hits while striking out eight. He even triggered the Dodgers’ four-run rally in the third inning off Carlos Perez (4-3) with a leadoff double.

“The way my teammates scored runs tonight,” Nomo said, “it made it kind of nice.”