DODGERS NOTEBOOK : WALLACE QUIETLY MOLDS FIRST-RATE STAFF.

Dave Wallace, the bushy-mustached, bespectacled pitching coach for the Dodgers, does not have the name recognition of, say, Atlanta Braves coach Leo Mazzone. He might not have the national reputation of St. Louis Cardinals coach Dave Duncan or Pittsburgh Pirates coach Ray Miller, to name a couple.

However it is Wallace's staff that leads baseball with a 3.45 team ERA. It is he who has taken a pitcher from Japan, two from the Dominican Republic, one from Mexico, another from the United States and occasionally one from Korea and helped them become one of the game's best rotations.

Wallace was the organization's minor-league pitching instructor for 14 years before he replaced Ron Perranoski, who was fired late in the 1994 season. True, most of the talent was there when Wallace arrived. But it was there in part because of Wallace, who showed them how to get to the big leagues and then how to stay.

``Everybody who's come through here, Dave's had a part of them,'' manager Bill Russell said. ``They really respect him and trust him.''

As for the issue of recognition, Russell said, the anonymity is by design.

``That's the way it should be,'' he said. ``The manager and coaches shouldn't be in the middle of it. We should be in the background.''

Add pitching: Dodgers pitchers had a collective 2.38 ERA against the Padres, and the bullpen allowed one run in 9-1/3 innings. This after the Dodgers gave up only nine runs in three games at Coors Field.

Big fly, and long: Mike Piazza's career-high 36th home run soared into the second deck at Jack Murphy Stadium, only the 13th baseball ever hit that far. It came off Padres reliever Tim Worrell on Sunday afternoon, and caused a park-wide gasp.

``How about that one?,'' Russell said. ``That was like hitting a golf ball.''

In a showdown of MVP candidates, Piazza hit two home runs and had seven RBI and Ken Caminiti had one home run, one RBI and seven strikeouts.

``You gotta have your three, four, five guys (in the batting order), especially Piazza,'' Russell said. ``You just gotta have guys like that. He means so much to our team.''

Padres strike back: The Dodgers would have liked to have won Sunday. The Padres had to.

``It was a must game,'' Padres right fielder Tony Gwynn said. ``But you never want to look at it like that. If you do, you put pressure on yourself and make mistakes. That was the last thing we needed.''

They drew back to within a half-game of the Dodgers when the deficit with a Dodgers victory would have been 2-1/2.

``It sees every game this month has been like this,'' Caminiti said. ``Obviously this one was huge. But now (Tuesday's) game (against Colorado) will be the biggest of the year.''

Coming up: After today's off day, the Dodgers play three against the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium. The pitching matchups: Tuesday (7:05 p.m.) - Ramon Martinez (14-6, 3.47) vs. Allen Watson (8-10, 4.19); Wednesday (7:35 p.m.) - Pedro Astacio (9-8, 3.43) vs. William VanLandingham (9-14, 5.46); Thursday (7:05 p.m.) - Tom Candiotti (9-9, 4.26) vs. Mark Gardner (10-7, 4.71).

Watson is the series' lone left-hander. The Dodgers are 23-11 in games started by left-handers.