Dodgers Slammed by a Familiar Face : Baseball: Marshall leads Mets’ 17-hit parade with six RBIs in 8-3 victory. L.A. drops below .500 again.

For eight years, Mike Marshall tantalized the Dodgers and their fans, helping the team make three playoff appearances and win a World Series.

And just as often, it seemed, Marshall frustrated the Dodgers, going into strikeout-filled funks and spending long periods on the disabled list. They finally ran out of patience and traded him to the New York Mets last winter.

Marshall returned to Los Angeles this week and showed that patience is a virtue.

For the second consecutive day and the fourth time in four games this season, the Mets hit the Dodgers hard, this time getting 17 hits in an 8-3 victory Tuesday before 29,064 fans at Dodger Stadium.

Marshall drove in six runs and hit the Mets’ second grand slam in two days. Kevin Elster added four hits, including a home run, and Keith Miller had three hits and scored three runs. Seven Met batters led off innings with hits.

The victory lifted the Mets to 19-19 and dropped the Dodgers to 19-20.

“I’ve got to give Davey (Johnson) credit: He stayed with me,” Marshall said of his new manager. “The power guys--Kevin McReynolds, Darryl Strawberry, Howard Johnson and myself--have been struggling, but Davey realizes that. He stayed with us. We’re the type of players, sometimes you have to be patient. We can go a week or two and not do anything, but for a week we can carry you.”

Marshall said he took no special delight in helping to beat his former team. But he admitted that it felt good to return to what he still feels is home.

“It’s a great place to play,” he said of Dodger Stadium. “Leaving and coming back, you realize how beautiful it is, driving into the stadium. All the guys enjoy playing here. I had great days here, I enjoyed playing here, (but) I don’t get caught up in (revenge). The most important thing was it was a win for the Mets.”

On a rare midweek day game, this one got away from the Dodgers in the sixth inning when the Mets scored five runs, capped by Marshall’s seventh career slam.

The Mets, leading, 2-1, put their first three batters in the sixth on base against Mike Hartley, the third Dodger pitcher, who helped sabotage the inning by throwing pitcher Bob Ojeda’s bunt into center field. Hartley nearly worked out of it, but nobody could handle Strawberry’s dribbler to the right side, which went as a run-scoring single.

Marshall then hit an 0-and-2 forkball over the wall just to the right of center field, clearing the bases. McReynolds had hit a grand slam Monday night in the Mets’ 12-3 rout of the Dodgers.

“(Hartley) gave him a pitch that anybody could hit out,” Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda said. Marshall’s view: “I was as surprised as anybody that it went out.”

Marshall also drove in the first run of the game, scoring Miller with a sacrifice fly in the first inning, and he singled in a run off Don Aase in the fifth, also on an 0-and-2 count.

In tying his career high for run production with his biggest day in six years, Marshall helped ruin Tim Crews’ first major league start. Crews was given the ball when scheduled starter John Wetteland became ill with the flu. Crews pitched in and out of trouble before leaving in the fifth.

The beneficiary of the Mets’ scoring burst was Ojeda, who improved to 1-2, giving up one run and four hits in six innings.

Another former Dodger, Alejandro Pena, pitched the last three innings, getting his second save despite giving up the Dodgers’ last two runs.

The Dodgers tied the score, 1-1, in the second when Eddie Murray’s leadoff fly ball to center was lost in the sun and fell for a double. He scored on a single by Mike Sharperson.

By the time the Dodgers scored again, they were down 7-1.

Jose Gonzalez, making a bid for more playing time in the outfield, tripled off the center-field wall and scored the final run in the eighth. Of the Dodgers’ seven hits, Gonzalez and Sharperson each had two.

While scoring 20 runs in their two victories here, the Mets got to Dodger pitchers for 31 hits.

“It’s upsetting, not frustrating,” Lasorda said. “Tell them to make the right pitch, that’s all I can do.”

Marshall’s big day lifted his average against the Dodgers to .333 with seven RBIs in the four games. For the season, he’s hitting .234 with 19 RBIs. Marshall’s chronic back ailment hasn’t been much of a problem so far.

“I’m frustrated I haven’t been hitting the ball better, but I have the confidence because I have the health,” Marshall said. “Sooner or later, I’m going to be the player they expected--20 to 25 homers, 80 to 100 RBIs. I can do it.”

Dodger Notes

Outfielder Kirk Gibson will start a rehabilitation stint Thursday with the Dodgers’ triple-A team in Albuquerque, N.M. . . . Left-hander Pat Perry was activated in time for Tuesday’s game and took the mound in the eighth inning, his first major league appearance since last June. He pitched a scoreless inning. . . . Infielder Brian Traxler was optioned to Albuquerque to open a spot on the roster. . . . Reliever Jim Gott, who has not pitched in the majors since April 6, 1989, will go on the Dodgers’ eight-game trip in anticipation of being activated before the team’s May 31 return.

First baseman Eddie Murray left Tuesday’s game after three innings with a sore left hamstring. . . . Pitcher Tim Crews looked at Tuesday’s game as an opportunity for more starts after 120 Dodger relief appearances. “I enjoyed starting (in the minors),” he said before the game. “I’d rather start, but Tommy (Lasorda) says I’m too valuable in the ‘pen. Maybe I can change his mind.” Crews lasted into the fifth inning, giving up eight hits and one earned run. . . . John Wetteland, who was supposed to start, mopped up in the ninth despite suffering from the flu. “It was decided if we had an emergency, I’d be used. Apparently we had an emergency,” Wetteland said dryly.

Met outfielder Kevin McReynolds sat out the game with an inflamed knee, but the condition is not considered serious. . . . Five of Mike Marshall’s seven career grand slams have been hit at Dodger Stadium.

* ANDRE DAWSON: He gets five intentional walks in the Chicago Cubs’ 2-1 victory over the Cincinnati Reds. C4