DODGERS FIND COMFORT ZONE : AFTER BUILDING UP 11-0 LEAD, L.A. HOLDS ON TO WIN BY FOUR DODGERS 11, PHILADELPHIA 7.

Byline: Tim Brown Daily News Staff Writer

If nothing else, they happened upon a lead that was both too large for their pitchers to waste, and too large for Jim Eisenreich alone to match.

That number, incidentally, is 11.

The Dodgers defeated the Philadelphia Phillies 11-7 Saturday night at Veterans Stadium in a game that started with them scoring the first 11 runs and ended with Antonio Osuna's third save.

``Comfortable?,'' Tim Wallach said with a bemused expression. ``Did it look like we were comfortable?''

No. Actually, it never did. Not even after the Dodgers scored eight runs in the fourth inning on a season-high eight hits, two, including a home run, by Raul Mondesi.

That gave the Dodgers an 11-0 lead, the bulk of which was attained against Phillies starter Curt Schilling, who 11 days ago beat them with a two-hitter. He allowed eight runs, all but one earned, in 3-1/3 innings, his shortest start of the season.

``Wins are wins,'' said Wallach, obtained for just such wisdom. ``Certainly you'd like to have an easier win after it's 11-0. But right now it doesn't matter.''

There's something to that. The second-place Dodgers gained a game on the San Diego Padres, who lead the National League West by a game, for the first time in eight days. The Dodgers have won 15 of their past 20, and in that time gained only 1-1/2 games on the Padres, who lost 4-2 to the Montreal Expos.

They had 18 hits, three by Wayne Kirby and Mondesi, whose 21st home run scored the final two runs of the fourth. Greg Gagne and rookie Todd Hollandsworth each had a two-run double in the fourth, when Schilling came apart.

``He still had his pitches. I guess he was just hitting the wrong locations,'' Kirby said. ``We took advantage of his mistakes.

``It's kind of strange, but it goes that way sometimes. Tonight the hitters get credit. Last time, he got the credit.''

Mike Piazza had two more hits to lift his league-leading average to .345. However, he had to drag his ailing knee through nine more innings, only because Dodgers starter Ismael Valdes had another mediocre performance. Handed this 11-0 bit of fortune, and in his seventh start since he last won a game, Valdes allowed three runs in the bottom of the fourth, another in the fifth and two more in the seventh.

Valdes (12-7) was the winner, but gave up six runs, five earned, and nine hits in seven innings. In his last start here, he allowed seven runs in 5-2/3 innings.

``He's a better pitcher than that,'' Dodgers manager Bill Russell said. ``He had better stuff than that. His concentration level is not where it should be, especially this time of year. Hopefully, in his next start, he'll have learned by this start.''

It's not just Valdes, of course. The entire pitching staff has allowed 63 runs in its past 13 games, an average of nearly five per outing, though that wobble has been spotted by an offense that is suddenly sound.

``You'd think with 11 runs you'd coast in,'' Russell said. ``Maybe that was the problem.

``That's been our pattern. I thought about giving some guys the (end of the game) off, but the way the pattern's going, you just can't do it. I can't explain it, it's just been happening.''

Eisenreich singled and scored in the fourth inning, had a run-scoring single in the fifth and hit a two-run homer in the seventh inning.

This season, he is batting .489 (22 for 45) against the Dodgers. For his career, Eisenreich is batting .436 (71 for 163) against them, including seven of his 24 National League home runs.

Anytime the Phillies want to unload him, it would be all right with the Dodgers.

But, for a night anyway, he merely contributed to the confusion of the Dodgers, emotionally stuck between playing average baseball and winning baseball games. There is a nagging sense that everything is not quite right, though, at 74-61, they are 13 games over .500 for the first time since 1991.

``We need to improve if we want to get to the postseason, and if we want to do anything once we get there,'' Piazza said. ``We have to have a better effort in some areas. I don't necessarily mean effort as in trying, but effort as in execution.''

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1--color) Philadelphia's Mickey Morandini gets t he throw off after forcing Wayne Kirby.

(2) Former Dodgers manager Tom Lasorda waves to the crowd during a tribute to him before Saturday's game in Philadelphia.

Associated Press