HOMERS, NOT EXCUSES; DODGERS LET LOOSE, SMASH CARDINALS : DODGERS 6, ST. LOUIS 1.

Byline: Kevin Acee Daily News Staff Writer

The Dodgers, one of the unluckiest, most-hated, most-pressured team in all of baseball, showed Sunday they could overcome.

Almost to a man, they used one phrase again and again after beating the St. Louis Cardinals 6-1 on the strength of back-to-back-to-back home runs by Mike Piazza, Eric Karros and Todd Zeile in the fourth inning.

``We've got to stop making excuses,'' they said.

Hmmm. Wonder where they got that.

A day after a disastrous showing all around and a closed-door postgame meeting called by manager Bill Russell, in which he basically said he'd like to see more good decisions and less passing the buck, the Dodgers put together one of their finest outings of the season.

The Dodgers say it was coincidence and it might have been. Happy coincidence, at that.

Power. Pitching. Late runs.

They came uncorked.

Dodgers rookie Wilton Guerrero was ejected in the first inning after hitting a broken-bat grounder to second to start the game. It was immediately - and to the disbelief of everyone - discovered that Guerrero's bat was filled with cork.

The Dodgers promptly went through the first three innings without a hit before Piazza led off the fourth with his homer out of right field. After Karros' line drive out of left and Zeile's bomb beyond left-center, the Dodgers had a three-run lead for the first time in seven games.

Chan Ho Park improved his record to 3-0 in games he pitches after Dodgers losses and 4-2 overall, as he placed nine hits over 6-2/3 innings.

With their lead cut to 3-1, the Dodgers scored three more runs in the eighth on singles by Piazza, Karros and Roger Cedeno and a double by Todd Hollandsworth.

Afterward, the usual explanations were missing. There was no talk of the pressure to win being unbearable. There was no mention of line-drive outs. No one said a word about lack of hitting hurting the poor pitching staff. No one was out to get them because they are the Dodgers.

There was an air of hope that a group that was supposed to be nearing its collective peak might have learned a little something about itself in the first third of the season.

``It's unfortunate you have to go through these times,'' Piazza said of the peaks and valleys that have come with the Dodgers' lack of production. ``I have to look at it as a positive. Hopefully, there will be some sort of light at the end of the tunnel. I hope the adversity will help us grow. I think our immaturity has shown at times this year. Hopefully, we can overcome this and it can make us a more mature, better team.''

It certainly is not too late. The Dodgers moved back above .500 with the victory and moved up to four games behind the San Francisco Giants. The Dodgers are in a better position today than they were last June 2, when they were 6-1/2 back. Two weeks later they were tied for first.

``If we can start winning, we're not too far out of it,'' Piazza said.

``Today is hopefully a sign of good things (to come),'' Russell said. ``That's what you keep hoping.''

A few games, a few victories, need to pass before Sunday can be declared any sort of monumental triumph.

But it was at the very least a great way to rebound from the season's ugliest performance, in which the Dodgers committed four errors and at least a half-dozen other gaffes to lose their fourth straight game.

``We've been playing bad,'' Zeile said. ``It was a matter of time before we stopped making excuses and took some responsibility for ourselves.''

Nothing stopped the Dodgers on Sunday. Not Guerrero's mishap. Not a mishmash-mash starting lineup that featured Todd Hollandsworth in right field, Roger Cedeno in center, Juan Castro at shortstop and was without Raul Mondesi for the first time all season. Not sporadic heavy rain. Not Alan Benes, one of the hottest pitchers in the league.

``I think we're sick of making excuses,'' said Piazza, who is batting .451 the past nine games. ``. . . We came out today with a good attitude. We've been making a lot of stupid mistakes. It's important to correct that. We have to put all the crap behind us.''

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Photo: (color) Even umpire Steve Ripley can't believe itas he shows Wilton Guerrero's broken corked bat to Mike Piazza, Bill Russell and Mike Scioscia. Page 7.

Associated Press