DODGERS SPEED UP THE PROCESS; THE RUNNING GAME COUNTERACTS POWER : DODGERS 11, SEATTLE 2.

Byline: Eric Noland Daily News Staff Writer

This first season of interleague play was certain to ignite debate about the contrasting merits of how baseball is played in the National and American leagues.

Accordingly, the game probably couldn't have found a better illustration of the differences than the Dodgers and Seattle Mariners presented Saturday afternoon at Dodger Stadium.

The Dodgers came in with the second-lowest ERA in the major leagues and a newly assembled stable of sprinters. The Mariners rolled in an offense that is on pace for the second-highest home-run total in baseball history.

Well, score one - a big one - for the fine-point method.

The Dodgers dashed around the bases and sent Ramon Martinez out to tie up the Seattle bats, and by the close of business, they had a resounding 11-2 victory before a sellout crowd of 53,638 fans.

And one statement undeniably issued.

``We did some damage with home runs,'' said the Dodgers' Todd Zeile, who has played in both leagues, ``but the speed game, which we've started to utilize very effectively in the last two weeks, is not really prototypical American League play.

``We have to use some of our National League advantage when we play these guys, because they're usually bashers.''

The Dodgers, in winning their fifth straight and maintaining their 2-1/2-game lead in the NL West, did exactly that - to an extreme.

As Mariners great Ken Griffey Jr. twice was fanned on three pitches by Martinez and Seattle was held to two solo home runs, the Dodgers continued to unleash the hustle at every opportunity.

They scored on a suicide-squeeze play and a passed ball. Ten of their 14 hits were singles, including a bunt and an infield roller. Eric Young stole a base - on a pitchout, no less. They waved Martinez home from first on Young's double off the left-field wall. Otis Nixon bunted home Young on the fourth-inning squeeze - and still beat the throw to first.

The Dodgers, in short, ran circles around their lumbering cousin from the other league.

``Being in American League for two years,'' said newcomer Darren Lewis, formerly of the Chicago White Sox, ``I got used to seeing people sit back and wait for the big guys to hit a double or hit the ball over the fence.

``There are other ways to score runs. I like this kind of baseball better, because it's part of my style. I can relate to the speed game.''

So, obviously, can Dodgers manager Bill Russell, whose team has taken on an entirely new offensive philosophy with the addition this month of Nixon, Young and Lewis.

``I think,'' said Zeile, ``we're giving Bill the luxury of having a team more the way he always wanted it.''

The Dodgers tried to deliver this style early in the season, using Brett Butler, Wilton Guerrero and Raul Mondesi in the Nos. 1-2-3 lineup spots. But Butler was pushing 40 and minimally effective, Guerrero was a bit overwhelmed as a rookie, and Mondesi a bit too eager at the plate to make it work.

Now, particularly in Nixon and Young, they have some experienced burners to make it it all click. The ledger on Nixon, Young and Lewis on Saturday? A combined 6 for 9, with two doubles, six RBI, five runs scored, a stolen base, a sacrifice bunt and a bunt single.

Just to throw in a power-packed complement to all of this, Mike Piazza delivered a three-run home run to put the game out of reach in the sixth and Eric Karros delivered a solo bomb in the first.

Inspired by this output, Martinez turned in six solid innings in his second official outing since coming off a 51-game absence to a torn rotator cuff. In addition to reducing Griffey to an afterthought, he held the thunderous Mariners to three hits, though one of them a prodigious solo home run by Jay Buhner.

``I really felt great today,'' said Martinez, who improved to 8-3. ``The way we are playing, this is the real baseball. The more exciting we get, the better we play.''

And the higher their self-esteem soars. As the Dodgers climbed to 19 games over .500, at 78-59, their clubhouse continued to reflect a loose environment. Early Van Halen blared off its walls at the conclusion of this one.

Karros says this is the most balanced team he has seen in his seven seasons here.

``We're getting good pitching, we're playing good defense and the offense is on a roll,'' added Nixon. ``When you do those three things, you stay focused.

``And we're going in one direction - and that's up.''

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2 Photos

Photo: (1--color) This bunt by Otis Nixon moved Eric Young to third in the first inning. Nixon's bunt in the fourth inning scored Young.

(2) Dodgers left fielder Brett Butler is braced to make a diving catch off a line drive hit by Roberto Kelly in the fifth inning.

Gus Ruelas / Daily News