Hershiser Is Too Much for St. Louis : Dodgers: He works six innings; shutout string against Cardinals reaches 12 1/3. Harris wins game, 2-1, with a single in the ninth.

Lenny Harris was nearly knocked out in a fielding collision during the seventh inning, and he was not really sure what happened after that.

But when he sees the highlights, he will notice that he drove in the winning run with a ninth-inning bases-loaded single to give the Dodgers a 2-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals Friday.

Lately, Harris has been helping the Dodgers win games frequently--and he has the bumps and bruises to prove it. On Monday, it meant hitting a grand slam in Chicago. On Thursday in Pittsburgh, it meant getting hit by a pitch on a knuckle as part of a ninth-inning rally.

And Friday, before a Dodger Stadium crowd of 39,041 that included President Bush and baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent, it meant a monstrous headache for Harris before he sent the Cardinals home sick.

“I never felt so dizzy,” he said after the game.

“The last time I felt like this I was wearing a football uniform.”

Harris’ headache can be traced to the top of the seventh, when he left his third base spot in pursuit of Ozzie Smith’s foul pop down the left-field line. Left fielder Kal Daniels converged on the ball as Harris made an over-the-shoulder catch, helping preserve a 1-0 Dodger lead.

Then came a scary collision as both players collided and went down, with shortstop Alfredo Griffin momentarily joining the pile. Harris and Daniels were shaken, but they stayed in the game.

After the Cardinals tied the score in the eighth inning, the Dodgers loaded the bases in the ninth against Scott Terry (1-1) on Juan Samuel’s single, Darryl Strawberry’s double and an intentional walk to Eddie Murray.

After Daniels struck out, Harris slapped a single barely out of the reach of second baseman Geronimo Pena.

The victory went to reliever Jay Howell (1-2) as the Dodgers picked up ground on Atlanta in the National League West, expanding their division lead to three games.

“I’ve got a pretty good headache right now, but before the base hit, my head was kind of throbbing,” Harris said.

“After I batted (in the seventh), I took two aspirin. It helped big-time.”

Maybe it did, but Harris was still so groggy after the game that he referred to St. Louis reliever Juan Agosto as “Aguilera.”

Orel Hershiser, bidding for his first Dodger Stadium victory since April of 1990, had clearer recall: “We did a good job of coming back at the end.”

He fought through six shutout innings but got no decision.

Cardinal starter Jose DeLeon held the Dodgers to a run and two hits through six innings.

“This was a frustrating game for us,” Cardinal Manager Joe Torre said.

“DeLeon pitched better than Hershiser, but Hershiser got the out when he needed it. It’s been that way all year for DeLeon.”

DeLeon gave up one run on two hits in the second inning as Daniels and Harris got consecutive singles and Mike Scioscia hit a sacrifice fly.

Hershiser ran his streak of scoreless innings against the Cardinals to 12 1/3 and lowered his earned run average to 2.35, but worked from the stretch most of the night as five of six Cardinal leadoff batters reached base.

Twice Hershiser faced cleanup hitter Pedro Guerrero with two out and a runner on third. Both times he escaped on groundouts to third.

“I was fortunate to get him out,” Hershiser said. “It was a struggle results-wise. My location was pretty poor, especially to the leadoff batters. As the innings went on I got a little tougher mentally and so did our defense.”

The Dodger defense made several fine plays Friday, including a run-saving double play in the fifth and a basket catch down the right-field line by first baseman Murray in the ninth.

“We get criticized for our defense, but we’re getting pretty good defense now,” Harris said.

“And Orel makes our team better because he throws strikes.”