AILING SHEFFIELD HEALS DODGERS DODGERS 8, METS 3.

Byline: Matt McHale Staff Writer

Gary Sheffield glared at the New York Mets on Friday night the way he looked at Dodgers doctors earlier in the day.

The team wasn't eager to have him play after tests failed to answer why he fainted at home two days before. But after taking off a game, Sheffield insisted he was coming back against the Mets and responded with a dramatic three-run homer in his first at-bat of an 8-3 victory.

Sheffield added an RBI single in the third inning, but it was the 415-foot shot against left-hander Glendon Rusch (6-8) that triggered just the Dodgers' second victory in their past eight games.

``I guess his dizziness is over,'' Mets manager Bobby Valentine said.

Sheffield was hospitalized Thursday when the Dodgers suffered a dreadful 7-3 loss to the lowly Montreal Expos. It dropped the club three games behind Arizona in the National League West. Sheffield wanted to get back in the pennant race.

``I was sitting in bed for 24 hours, driving everyone crazy, my wife and the doctors,'' Sheffield said. ``I get more worked up when I have to sit and watch when I feel like I can help.''

The home run was Sheffield's 26th and he has 68 RBI. But he also is a player the club desperately needs down the stretch. His teammates didn't know much until he arrived at the ballpark less than two hours before game time.

``We were all really worried about him,'' Paul Lo Duca said. ``But when he walked out for batting practice, the whole team was energized.''

Against the Mets, who now have dropped seven in a row, it showed.

In addition to Sheffield, Adrian Beltre continued to flourish in his new role as the Dodgers' leadoff hitter, with three hits and two runs. In his first 13 at-bats at the top of the order, Beltre went 9 for 13 with with six runs scored.

Right-hander Terry Adams took a no-hitter into the fifth inning and left after the sixth with a 6-2 lead. Jeff Shaw pitched a perfect ninth for his 35th save, tying San Francisco's Robb Nen for the NL lead.

Although he allowed a two-run homer to Tsuyoshi Shinjo in the sixth, Adams (9-5) benefited from four Dodgers double plays including two off the bat of Mike Piazza.

The last one was in the fifth, when center fielder Marquis Grissom threw out Rey Ordonez at third trying to tag up on a fly ball by Joe McEwing.

Grissom, who was 1 for 13 on the homestand, then came to the plate in the seventh to hit his 18th home run of the year. It was a two-run shot that cleared the fence in right-center against hard-throwing right-hander Armando Benitez, the Mets' fourth pitcher of the night.

Piazza, the former Dodgers catcher who is batting .360 in his last 35 games after an early season slump, drew mostly boos from the crowd of 41,801. But when he came to the plate with two on in the seventh representing the tying run against reliever Matt Herges, Piazza brought to life old memories and a lot of disappointed Mets fans.

Less than a year after reaching the World Series against the crosstown Yankees, the Mets are playing out the string in the National League East.

Piazza struck out on a pitch in the dirt.

The dramatics were left to Sheffield, who arrived around 5:30 p.m. after undergoing a battery of tests at Centinela Hospital Medical Center. He was admitted after paramedics answered a 911 call from his wife DeLeon.

Dodgers internist Michael Mellman said there was no clear reason for the fainting spells, but the club will run more test Monday. The team leaves on a seven-game trip that morning and Sheffield will rejoin the club later in the day.

CAPTION(S):

photo, box

Photo:

Dodgers left fielder Gary Sheffield, right, overcame inconclusive medical tests for a dizzy spell to hit a dramatic homer Friday at Dodger Stadium.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer

Box: NL WEST