DODGERS BATTERS TAKE ADVANTAGE FOR VICTORY GRABOWSKI, L.A. JUMP ON AILING CUBS ACE DODGERS 7, CHICAGO 2.

Byline: Tony Jackson  Staff Writer

One day, when Jason Grabowski's grandchildren ask him about his first major-league home run, he will proudly tell them it was a game-winning blast off star right-hander Kerry Wood. No one will blame Grabowski if he leaves out two key facts.

First, it was a game-winning blast only because it put the Dodgers ahead to stay in the second inning. From there, they cruised to a 7-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs in front of 35,439 Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium.

Second, Grabowski took Wood deep on an evening when Wood clearly wasn't himself. At the end of that second inning, Wood left the game for precautionary reasons after reporting tightness in his right triceps muscle.

In the end, of course, none of that really mattered. In the end, all that mattered was that Grabowski finally had broken free from his early-season slump with his first career three-hit game and that Jeff Weaver finally had gotten the run support that had been missing from all but one of his previous starts.

Oh, and also that the Dodgers had struck first in this early-season, three-game showdown between two of the National League's best teams - and quite possibly, two of its playoff teams.

Grabowski had shown signs in recent days of breaking out after going hitless in 18 consecutive at-bats, almost all of them as a pinch hitter. But he came into this game hitless in his past four at-bats, and his average had fallen to an embarrassing .138.

But in the bottom of the second, after Adrian Beltre had tied the game at 1-1 with a leadoff homer just out of reach of the leaping Sammy Sosa at the right-field wall and Juan Encarnacion had followed by reaching on an error, Grabowski stepped into the box against Wood for the first time in his career. He took ball one, then drove the second pitch about 12 rows deep into the right-field pavilion, giving the Dodgers a 3-1 lead.

Wood (3-3) got out of the inning without further damage but never returned to the mound. The Dodgers scored three runs off Glendon Rusch in the fourth, two of them on one of Paul Lo Duca's three hits, to put the game away.

The Dodgers (21-10) moved 11 games over .500 for the first time since last Sept. 24, when they were 84-73 before dropping four of their final five.

Weaver (2-4), meanwhile, turned in arguably his finest performance as a Dodger. He scattered six hits over a season-high eight innings, allowing only an RBI double by Ramon Martinez in the second after Weaver had hit Michael Barrett and an RBI single by Sosa in the sixth after Todd Walker had led off with a double.

More important, perhaps, Weaver finally had something to work with. The Dodgers averaged 2.67 runs in Weaver's first six starts, and that included a seven-run outburst at San Francisco in Weaver's only previous victory on April 18.

Armed with that three-run lead, Weaver took the mound to begin the third and proceeded to dominate, facing the minimum over the next three innings.

Grabowski and Alex Cora began the fourth with consecutive singles before Weaver bunted into a force at third. But Izturis singled sharply to right to load the bases, and Lo Duca drove in Cora and Weaver with a single through the right side of the infield, making it 5-1. Milton Bradley grounded into a force at second to score Izturis for a 6-1 lead.

With one out in the fifth, Encarnacion, Grabowski and Cora singled consecutively to make it 7-1. From there, Weaver sailed through, surviving the Cubs' mini-rally in the sixth before retiring the final seven batters he faced.

That streak almost ended when pinch hitter Tom Goodwin hit what looked like a certain single to right field with two outs in the seventh. But second baseman Cora lunged far to his left and sprawled on the dirt to make the stop, then got up and threw out Goodwin to end the inning.

Weaver turned the game over to Duaner Sanchez to begin the ninth, and the Cubs pushed another run across when Moises Alou and Aramis Ramirez hit Sanchez's first two pitches for a leadoff single and a double to the wall in right-center. But Sanchez settled down and struck out Derrek Lee and Barrett in succession, then induced a foul pop from Martinez to end the game.

Tony Jackson,[phone]

tony.jackson(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

(color) Jason Grabowski (33) is congratulated by Dodgers teammates Alex Cora (13) and Juan Encarnacion after his two-run homer in the second inning.

Michael Tweed/Associated Press

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