DODGERS WIN 3RD STRAIGHT : MARTINEZ: 100TH CAREER VICTORY DODGERS 6, CINCINNATI 5.

Byline: Tim Brown  Daily News Staff Writer

The Dodgers won another baseball game Monday night, their third in a row, and this didn't turn out to be such a bad place to spend a long weekend after all.

When it was done, the Dodgers won three of four from the Cincinnati Reds. They defeated the Reds 6-5 in the finale at Riverfront Stadium, where they just might have turned their fortunes to something marginally hopeful.

After an opening loss in which they fielded and pitched poorly, the Dodgers scored 23 runs to finish the series and committed only one error. They have won three consecutive games for the first time in more than a month.

What began so bleakly finished as a certain success, and they even inched half a game closer to the idle San Diego Padres, who lead the second-place Dodgers by two games in the National League West.

Dodgers ace Ramon Martinez (9-6) allowed four hits and two runs and won his 100th career game, which he did not complete only because of six walks, all in the final 16 batters he faced. He had eight strikeouts in only his third victory since June 22, in a season in which he won six of his first seven decisions. Todd Worrell pitched to four batters in order to get the final out. After three runs scored, Worrell got Kevin Mitchell to ground out with the potential tying and winning runs on base. It was his 30th save.

Martinez, whose career began in 1988, said the first hundred passed quickly. In 8-1/2 years, he is 100-69.

``In the first year, when I came up, I would just throw it,'' he said. ``Compared to now, I'd just throw it. I was the guy who tried to show everybody he could pitch in the major leagues.

``I realized that for you to win, you don't have to blow everybody away or try to blow everybody away.''

Of the 100th, he said, ``I would say that's a lot of ballgames.''

The Dodgers could use a few more over the next seven weeks. The Dodgers never trailed and Martinez shut out the Reds through four innings. He allowed a two-out, run-scoring single to Joe Oliver in the fifth and a leadoff home run to Thomas Howard in the seventh. Of the six walks, only one scored.

``Ramon is the backbone of our pitching staff,'' manager Bill Russell said. ``He's our guy. He's just been tremendous for us.''

He won 20 games in 1990. He threw a no-hitter in 1995. He struck out 18 in a game in 1990. And he quietly assumed Orel Hershiser's role as ace of the staff when Hershiser left after the 1994 season.

``What a competitor he is,'' Russell said.

Mike Piazza gave Martinez his first lead in the first inning, when he homered to right-center field off Reds starter John Smiley (10-10). The home run was Piazza's 29th and his first ever against Smiley, against whom he was 1 for 13.

The Dodgers scored twice in the fourth, on a long sacrifice fly by Eric Karros and a two-out double from Tim Wallach that scored Piazza from first base.

They scored three more in the sixth, all after there was one out, the last with a two-out hit by Greg Gagne.

Delino DeShields, who has five hits in his past 12 at-bats, singled and scored on Piazza's double. The Dodgers led 4-1, when things became strange.

Karros, who drove the ball to center field all series, did so again with Piazza on second base. Howard, in center field in place of regular Eric Davis, retreated to the wall and deflected the ball to the top of the fence.

The ball, like a squirrel on a telephone wire, rode the top of the fence for about four feet and fell back into play. Karros had a double. Piazza only reached third.

Asked if he had ever seen something like that before, Karros laughed and said, wryly, ``No. And I'm just really glad I can be a part of it. I watched the whole thing and I think Mike watched the whole thing. We both watched the whole thing.''

Though Piazza and Karros later scored to give the Dodgers a 6-1 lead that barely held up, Piazza scolded himself for not scoring on Karros' hit.

``I was like, `What is that?' '' Piazza said. ``In the meantime, I forgot to run. It was the weirdest thing I've ever seen. Nobody's going to give me any awards for baserunning and I guess that's the reason why.''

Karros, apparently, found little humor in doubling Piazza from second to third.

``He had a right to be upset,'' Piazza said. ``I would have been upset, too. It cost him an RBI.

``I don't know. I feel kind of lost out there on the bases.''

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

PHOTO (1--color) Martinez

(2) Dodgers catcher Mike Piazz a makes his way home after hitting a solo home run in the first inning at Riverfront Stadium.

Associated Press