DODGERS SEND MESSAGE; PARK FLAWLESS IN ROMP OF GIANTS : DODGERS 11, SAN FRANCISCO 0.

Byline: Kevin Acee Daily News Staff Writer

In the biggest game of this season, which is barely past its midpoint, the Dodgers sent Chan Ho Park, who is barely 24 years old, to try to bring down the Giants.

The Dodgers were looking to set a tone for this series, and perhaps the rest of the season, with a victory Thursday. An 11-0 rout, which moved them to within five games of the first-place Giants, might have accomplished that.

Being that it was just the day after the All-Star break, the victory might not mean a whole lot in the scheme of the season. But it was a giant step for the maturing Park.

The Giants got just three hits as Park equalled his season high by going seven innings. His 119 pitches prevented him from going further. He certainly was not struggling. He shut down the Giants' only real threat - men at first and third - by striking out Jeff Kent to end the sixth inning. The Giants went down in order in the seventh.

Darren Dreifort pitched the eighth inning and Antonio Osuna the ninth to get the Dodgers off to the right start in this four-game series that is as crucial as it can be given the timing.

On any other night, it would have been just a losing streak-stopping win for Park, who had not won in four starts nor gone seven innings in his previous three starts. The first of those three was a 4-2 loss at San Francisco last month, in which he allowed four runs in 6-1/3 innings. His last victory was June 11, though the Dodgers won three of his past five starts.

Plenty of other things went right for the Dodgers on Thursday, as they achieved their first seven-game winning streak since May of 1994.

The Giants, who had won four straight, committed two errors and showed the Dodgers none of the pitching that held the Rockies to one run in three games last week. It was the Dodgers' third 11-0 victory over the Giants in their past four games.

The Dodgers reached double digits in hits, with 16, for the sixth time in the past seven games. More significantly, they bunched them.

Mike Piazza, who did not have an RBI in the San Diego series that closed out the season's first half, drove in the Dodgers' first run Thursday.

After Brett Butler started the game with a single off third baseman Mark Lewis' glove, Roger Cedeno doubled inside the third-base bag. Both scored, Butler on Piazza's fly ball to left and Cedeno on Eric Karros' grounder to shortstop. It was Karros' 14th RBI in nine games.

The Dodgers extended their lead to 3-0 in the fourth inning when Todd Zeile followed Raul Mondesi's two-out double with a single under second baseman Kent's glove. Kent appeared to be blocked from getting a read on the grounder by second-base umpire Angel Hernandez. In the sixth inning, after Piazza led off with a solo home run to right field, Karros and Mondesi hit successive singles to right. In a move that has characterized the Dodgers' return to aggressive baseball, they pulled off a double steal. It was the Dodgers' third such venture this season and second in the past two games. It allowed Karros to score on a fly ball to left by Zeile.

While the Dodgers scored six more runs in the eighth, three on a home run by the no-longer-surprising Tripp Cromer, the five runs would have been plenty. They improved to 34-4 when scoring at least that many runs.

Before the game, the Dodgers battled the urge to place too much emphasis on this series, which they know will set the tone for the second half of the season. Maybe.

``If we split 2-2, it's no big deal,'' Butler said. ``If there's a big swing one way or another, then it's a big deal. I guess the way to (say) it is we'll have to see when it's over.''

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2 Photos

PHOTO (1--color) Dodgers pitcher Chan Ho Park looks for the call as he covers first, but Giants' Jose Vizcaino was called safe.

(2) Dodgers' Brett Butler high-fives Mike Piazza after scoring on Piazza's sacrifice fly in the first inning.

Myung J. Chun / Daily News