DODGERS' STREAK IS 4 TOO LATE : DODGERS 6, SAN FRANCISCO 3.

Byline: Matt McHale Daily News Staff Writer

On the day they finally won their fourth consecutive game for the first time this season, Dodgers players couldn't help but wonder why they hadn't done this in June or July when it mattered.

It looked so easy Saturday afternoon with Chan Ho Park going the distance and Orel Hershiser getting routed that the 6-3 victory over the San Francisco Giants in front of 35,802 at Dodger Stadium left a sense of embarrassment in the post-game clubhouse.

``We'll probably play well the rest of the way and finish four games out in the wild card,'' Eric Karros said. ``And people will say, `Gee, a couple of wins here or there and you guys could have been right there.' The problems here were much deeper than that.''

The Dodgers threatened to go an entire season without four consecutive victories for the first time since 1936. But now they are playing out the string without pennant pressure. It was only a matter of time.

Gary Sheffield, Ramon Martinez, Todd Hollandsworth and Antonio Osuna already are gone for the season. Raul Mondesi is taking a few days off to get his sore lower back in shape. Trenidad Hubbard took Mondesi's place in center and Jim Eisenreich took Hubbard's place in left.

Sure, Eric Young opened the first with a home run. And Park struck out Barry Bonds in the first inning to end his record National League streak of reaching base in 15 consecutive plate appearances.

``But it is not a full-fledged four in a row,'' said Eisenreich, who made two running catches. ``We did win, but it's September and we're so far out. When we needed to win, which was during most of the summer, we couldn't do it.''

Saturday, Hershiser was going for his third victory this season against his former team. Young's home run was an omen and Hershiser got beaten up for eight hits and six runs before leaving without retiring a batter in the third.

``I walked in from the bullpen feeling great, but I made some bad pitches,'' Hershiser said. ``It wasn't good.''

The Dodgers got six hits from the top three in the order. Seldom-used Roger Cedeno, starting in right after Matt Luke went to the hospital with the flu, had two singles and an RBI. He also made a running basket catch at the right-field line to take extra bases from Ellis Burks.

``They gave me all I needed,'' said Park, who threw 136 pitches in his first complete game since last Sept. 23, 1997 against San Diego. ``It helped me relax and gave the bullpen the day off.''

It didn't matter the Dodgers never scored after the third inning. After Hershiser (9-10) left, the Dodgers had just three hits. But Park was rarely challenged. The Giants did not score until the seventh. In the eighth, Armando Rios, whose pinch homer Friday night was his first major-league hit, had another.

Giants second baseman Jeff Kent, who has 56 RBI in the second half, also hit his second home run of the series. It came in the ninth and forced the Dodgers' bullpen to stir. The club already is without Osuna, Mark Guthrie and now Scott Radinsky because of elbow problems.

But the Giants had just too far to come back. After entering the series just two games back of the Chicago Cubs for the wild card, San Francisco is now four behind the Cubs and three behind the New York Mets.

The Dodgers wish they had such problems. It's not enough to cite a four-game winning streak, since only Detroit hasn't done it this year. It's not enough to talk about going two games above .500 when so much was expected at the beginning of the year.

``It's good for the mood in here, but it doesn't really mean a lot,'' Eisenreich said. ``It would be good to take something positive into the offseason, but the offseason is so uncertain. There will be a new general manager. There is no way to predict the future.''

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Photo

PHOTO Orel Hershiser grimaces after giving up a first-inning home run to the Dodgers' Eric Young.

Michael Caulfield/Associated Press