Top of Their Game

CHICAGO — On the first day of August, the Dodgers couldn’t be happier.

Because it looked a lot like July.

The team that soared through the previous 31 days, going from eight games behind the National League West-leading San Francisco Giants into a tie atop the division, showed Friday that nothing had changed except the calendar.

They outslugged the Chicago Cubs, 13-9, at Wrigley Field in front of 32,257 for their seventh consecutive victory. After winning 20 games in July, one short of their all-time best for that month, the Dodgers got their 21st win in their last 28 games by handing the hapless Cubs, cellar dwellers in the NL Central, their ninth consecutive loss.

To do so, the Dodgers had to survive five home runs and 14 hits by the Cubs on one of those days when the wind and balls were blowing out of Wrigley Field.

The Dodgers had plenty of artillery, hitting two home runs as part of a 20-hit attack.

“Our pitchers needed help today, and we gave it to them,” Dodger Manager Bill Russell said. “It seems like no game’s ever over with the wind blowing out in this park like that.”

Todd Zeile hit his 22nd homer and drove in four runs, and Wilton Guerrero, getting more playing time because of an elbow injury suffered by Tripp Cromer, hit his fourth homer, one of three hits in six at-bats.

Two other Dodgers--Raul Mondesi and Todd Hollandsworth--also had three hits each.

It was such an offensive day that even relief pitcher Antonio Osuna got a hit, his first, he said, since his days as an amateur in Mexico.

Others may point to the wind or erratic pitching to explain the abundance of hits, but, in the case of Mondesi, it’s not so complicated.

It’s simply the pants.

For the first time since he was a double-A player at San Antonio in the early ‘90s, Mondesi decided to roll his pant legs up Thursday night all the way to the top of his Dodger blue socks.

The result? A three-hit night.

Mondesi, highly superstitious, did it again Friday and got three more hits.

So look for those socks to be showing as long as the hits are flowing.

“He’s a streaky guy,” Russell said. “He’s into it right now. He can do a lot for you. When you see that the number of walks he gets are up and he’s hitting the ball the other way, you know he’s in a groove.”

Dodger starter Hideo Nomo certainly wasn’t in a groove. It was more like a rut. Nomo needed all the help he could get to boost his record to 10-8. He struck out 10 in 6 2/3 innings, but he also gave up seven runs and 11 hits.

It would be easy to put all the blame on the wind for his struggles, but Nomo wasn’t about to do that.

“It was the wind and my pitches,” the Japanese-born pitcher said through an interpreter. “I didn’t really throw good balls.”

Nomo had a comfortable lead before many in the matinee crowd had settled into their seats, the Dodgers scoring three runs in the second inning and four in the third.

But then Nomo seemed to start grooving fastballs, and the Cubs started blasting them right back.

Chicago’s season-high five homers were hit by Brian McRae (fifth and his first since May 14), Ryne Sandberg (sixth), Sammy Sosa (22nd), Doug Glanville (third) and Kevin Orie (fifth).

Although they kept hitting, the Cubs could never get closer than the final margin as neither starting pitcher Jeremi Gonzalez (7-5), nor those who followed him to the mound--Amaury Telemaco, Ramon Tatis, Turk Wendell, Terry Adams and Kent Bottenfield--could slow the Dodger offense.

Gonzalez was hit the hardest, giving up six run and six hits in two innings, his shortest outing of the season.

It already has been a long year for the Cubs (43-67).

The Dodgers hope it’s going to be another hot month for them.