THE BREAKS WENT THEIR WAY : It’s That Old Blue Magic : Dodgers: For 80 games, almost everything has worked out right for the team with the best record in baseball.

The magic actually started not with the beginning of the season, but a week earlier, on April 1. It was on this day at Vero Beach, Fla., that the Dodgers began making fools of National League opponents.

In the 10th inning of their last exhibition game against the Cincinnati Reds, the Dodgers were out of players and needed a pinch-hitter. A phone call was made from Holman Stadium to the minor league clubhouse for outfielder Domingo Mota.

But Mota didn’t come. He thought somebody was playing an April Fools’ Day joke. Another call was made, and Class-A catcher Ed Lund, who happened to be near the phone, pulled on a uniform and ran to the field.

He was rushed to the plate with runners on first and second and two out in the 10th. He fell behind on two strikes by pitcher Kip Gross.

Then he lined a single to right field to drive in the winning run in the Dodgers’ 5-4 victory.

More than three months later, things like that are still happening for the team with the best record in baseball.

The Dodgers (49-31) are off to their best 80-game start in 15 years simply because everything has gone right.

Juan Samuel calls their bluff by returning to a team that doesn’t really want him, and what happens? He becomes an NL most valuable player candidate.

Ramon Martinez begins the season angry when he is passed over for an opening-day start after a 12-day holdout, and what happens? In the first half he goes 12-3, winning as many games as anyone in baseball.

Mike Morgan makes the opening-day roster only because Fernando Valenzuela and Orel Hershiser can’t, and what happens? He makes the National League All-Star team.

It seems that every bounce is going for the Dodgers, particularly one taken by Stan Javier’s eighth-inning grounder June 20 in front of the largest crowd to watch a game at Dodger Stadium since 1986. The ball hops over the head of Pittsburgh Pirate shortstop Jay Bell, the winning run scores and the cheers of 50,060 are still echoing.

It’s no wonder the Dodgers have already drawn 1.7 million fans, the fourth-highest 41-game home total since the team moved to Los Angeles.

Even when things go badly, they turn out well.

The Dodgers are cheated out of a victory in Atlanta on an umpire’s bad call in the bottom of the ninth inning but win the game on an error in the 11th.

Jay Howell, their bullpen stopper, is injured just as other regular bullpen members are struggling. But Kevin Gross, with no saves since 1984, picks up three saves in eight days and Morgan saves his first game in three years.

Darryl Strawberry misses stretches of seven and 15 days with a shoulder injury, but replacements Chris Gwynn and Javier help the Dodgers go 14-6 in his absence.

Mike Scioscia, previously thought to be the most irreplaceable part of the lineup, misses 11 games with a bruised hand. But replacement Gary Carter has a 13-game hitting streak, tying a career high while picking up his 2,000th hit in the process.

Tim Crews saves a game at St. Louis even though he gets sick on the mound.

Before a game at Chicago, Mike Sharperson predicts that Lenny Harris will hit his first home run. An hour later, Harris hits a grand slam.

And there is the April night at San Francisco when John Candelaria’s cap blows off while he is making a full-count pitch to Will Clark with the tying and go-ahead runs on base. Clark notices the cap, pops the ball up and the Dodgers win.

“The only way we’ll lose this thing is if some other team gets flat-out hot, plays .650 ball and beats us,” Scioscia said. “Because injuries don’t seem to affect us. And slumps don’t seem to affect us.

“We aren’t going to give another team any chances. They are going to have to beat us themselves.”

Not that all of this magic has come without planning. Several important events have helped.

THE INSULT

In the second week of December, with free-agent outfielder Brett Butler relaxing in his Atlanta-area home while contemplating playing for the Braves, the Dodgers offered him a three-year, $7.5-million contract.

The Braves heard about the offer and, perhaps figuring it to be the Dodgers’ final bid, countered with an offer of only $100,000 more.

“To be honest, I really wanted to play for the Braves, but to see them use that sort of negotiating tactic. . . . “ Butler said. “After I heard their offer, I knew I could feel good about going to the Dodgers.”

So, ultimately he came to Los Angeles with a three-year guaranteed deal worth $10 million. And teammates say he has been worth twice that.

After making the All-Star team for the first time in his 10-year career, Butler has become, like Samuel, a candidate to become the league’s most valuable player.

He is currently on a 21-game hitting streak--all singles. But what has affected the team more than his hits has been the quick-strike timing of his offense.

He has reached base leading off the first inning 41 times, or in more than half of his 79 games. Considering that the Dodgers are 26-8 when they score in the first inning, that little statistic makes Butler huge.

THE MEETING

While rain pelted Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium before opening day, April 9, Manager Tom Lasorda used the delay to call Samuel into his office and ask for his help in being the No. 2 hitter.

Lasorda made no demands on the sensitive second baseman. He simply asked him to give the unfamiliar batting slot a 30-day tryout.

For the first time since coming to spring training in a bad mood, Samuel felt needed. For one of the first times since joining the team last year, he felt somebody on the Dodgers actually cared what he thought.

The next day, after leaving a runner on third base with a wild strikeout in the third inning, Samuel singled with the bases loaded in the fifth to give the Dodgers an eventual 6-4 victory in their opener against the Braves.

Since then, he has yet to go consecutive games without a base hit.

THE HEALING

Eddie Murray strained a hip muscle while playing on the hard surface of the New Orleans Superdome in a spring training game and missed seven games at the start of the season.

During that time, the Dodgers went 3-4, scored only 3.7 runs a game and committed 11 errors.

Although he was still in pain, Murray returned to the lineup and has not missed a game because of an injury since.

The Dodgers are 45-27 when Murray plays, 4-4 when he is out.

“You can replace a lot of starters on this team,” one Dodger veteran said. “But not Eddie.”

THE GOLF TOURNAMENT

Shortly before spring training, in Palm Springs, Lasorda bumped into the unemployed Candelaria at a golf tournament.

Said Lasorda: “I told him he was just the kind of pitcher we were looking for.”

Said Candelaria: “I thought, ‘Hey, he seems like a nice man. Why not?’ ”

According to many teammates, Candelaria has since become the Dodgers’ most valuable pitcher.

He has no victories, two saves and only 20 2/3 innings pitched. But of the 36 runners who have been on base when he has come into a game, only six have scored. Those 30 saved runs could be the difference between the Dodgers and the rest of the division.

The Dodgers wish the rest of the bullpen would pitch like that. If Howell does not appear to be 100% after missing the last 10 games because of a sore elbow, look for Vice President Fred Claire to begin scouring the trade market for a co-stopper.

Anybody remember those spring training talks concerning the Milwaukee Brewers’ Dan Plesac?

THE CARPET MAN

When Alfredo Griffin cut his toe May 10 while helping a carpet shampooer move his couch, he was hitting .228 with seven errors in 24 games.

For the next 13 days, he was forced to watch young Jose Offerman play shortstop flawlessly while helping the team post a 9-4 record. “You see him play, you understand what is going on,” Griffin said.

Thus inspired, Griffin has become one of the team’s cornerstones, committing only eight errors in the next 38 games. He has also batted .248 since his return to raise his overall average to .240.

As Griffin has improved, so has the Dodgers’ defense, which was among the worst in the league in April. Since May 7, they have tied for second-best defense in the league, with 34 errors in the past 55 games after committing 33 errors in the first 25 games.

And this is despite lapsing into 12 errors in the final five games before the All-Star break.

THE PHONE CALL

Tom Lasorda doesn’t hear from potential Hall of Famers asking for jobs. So, he was impressed when the unemployed Carter phoned him last winter, asking for a chance to be Scioscia’s backup.

“When nobody is knocking down your door, you start making the calls,” Carter said with a shrug.

Once Carter, 37, agreed to come to camp without a contract, the deal was sealed.

“What could we lose?” Lasorda asked.

Who would have believed how much they would gain? After amply backing up Scioscia for most of the first half, when Carter replaced the injured starter June 25 he became a youngster again.

In 12 games, he has batted .364 with four doubles, two homers and six runs batted in.

More surprising than his hitting is that Carter has also thrown out 17 of 45 runners, a 38% ratio that tops Scioscia’s 17% success rate.

Not that Carter’s body hasn’t paid a price. He received a cortisone shot Sunday in his sore right elbow. The Dodgers hope Scioscia gets well soon.

HIS MOTHER’S TELEVISION

A couple of weeks before spring training, while moving a television set for his mother, Morgan injured muscles in his upper leg and groin when he slipped.

Instead of coming to camp on time, he remained at his sister’s Las Vegas home to undergo rehabilitation with boxing therapist Keith Kleven.

When Morgan finally showed up at Vero Beach, he was in better shape than most of the players who had not been injured. As he later showed, he had also become strong in other ways.

Of Morgan’s nine victories, three short of his career high, six have followed Dodger losses.

Morgan leads a league-best starting staff that has pitched into the seventh inning in 45 of 80 games--and given up two or fewer runs in 35 of those games.

AND ALL WITHOUT DARRYL

Amid all the excitement, Strawberry has contributed little, which may have been the best thing to happen to this team.

The players know they can win under any condition.

Of course, they would like Strawberry to bat better than .188 with runners in scoring position, which is worse than even Ramon Martinez, who is hitting .333 in those situations.

They would like for Strawberry to get at least one hit this season with a runner on third base and two out. He is zero for eight in that category.

And in the second half of the season, they would like for him to hit more than two home runs in his first 87 at-bats, which is what happened in the first half.

Since moving to Los Angeles in 1958, the Dodgers have advanced to postseason play six of the nine times they have been in first place at the All-Star break.

With history and magic on their side, a sound Strawberry might be the only thing they lack.