Bielecki Two-Hits Dodgers : Baseball: Braves’ pitcher looks like an ace, holding L.A. hitless for 5 2/3 innings in 3-0 victory.

Just like late last season, the Dodgers were stunned by a member of the renowned Atlanta Braves’ starting pitching staff Thursday.

The difference was, this pitcher’s name was Mike Bielecki.

The Braves’ fifth starter looked like an ace to the Dodger hitters, as all but one of them were blanked as Bielecki gave up only two hits and three baserunners in the Braves’ 3-0 victory before 40,089 at Dodger Stadium.

But for Brett Butler, the Dodgers would have found themselves in red type in the Braves’ record books. As it was, they left the field with only red faces.

Butler singled to center in the sixth inning to end the no-hit bid and then doubled to left in the ninth. Kevin Gross was the other baserunner, drawing a walk in the third inning.

The loss was the Dodgers’ sixth in seventh games, dropping them to 3-7, matching their worst 10-game start since 1976, when they went 2-8.

The 1976 club finished with 92 victories, a figure that seems out of reach.

“We’ve got to put a little spirit and excitement in here,” said Gross, who pitched his second good game but fell to 0-1. “Things have gotten kind of stale. We need to figure out a way to win.”

With leading hitter Eric Davis sidelined because of a sore neck, that was exactly what the Dodgers couldn’t do.

Gross was beaten not only by a good opposing pitcher, but by a fly ball that sailed over Darryl Strawberry’s head and a throw that sailed out of Dave Hansen’s hand.

Bielecki, with an average fastball and a 57-m.p.h. forkball, did figure out a way to win.

“This was a different Bielecki tonight,” said Strawberry, who has four hits in his last 22 at-bats with seven strikeouts.

How true, considering this was a pitcher who had gone 56 starts without a complete game.

Last season he was the only National League pitcher to start at least 25 games last year (25) and not pitch past the eighth inning in any of them. He also had the highest earned-run average (4.46) of any pitcher who had a winning record with at least 162 innings.

But in less than three hours he matched his best game, a two-hitter against the Montreal Expos in 1989, while giving the Braves two two-hitters in 10 games this year.

The last time the Dodgers lost on a two-hitter at Dodger Stadium? Steve Avery of the Braves did it last Sept. 20.

“They played great defense behind me tonight. A lot of guys would like to pitch here,” said Bielecki, 32, who was traded from the Chicago Cubs to the Braves last Sept. 29 with Thursday’s catcher, Damon Berryhill, for a couple of prospects.

Bielecki said he was thinking about the absence of Dodger hits when he gave up the single to Butler.

“I knew I didn’t give up any hits yet, so did 40,000 other people, they were really letting me know,” Bielecki said. “(Butler) hit a slider down the middle of the plate. Then I kind of relaxed.”

Before his single, Butler had only one hit in his previous 14 at-bats.

But it was that sort of unusual game for several Dodgers, notably Kal Daniels, who before the game had a career .375 average against Bielecki.

Daniels struck out four times, including three times looking.

Bielecki struck out nine and allowed only six balls to leave the infield.

“Just nobody is having any fun right now,” Butler said.

Particularly not Gross, who gave up only two earned runs in six innings. He has a 1.32 ERA after two starts, yet is 0-1.

This time Gross watched while Hansen’s throwing error set up one Atlanta run, and a funny fly ball scored another.

The Braves broke a scoreless tie in the third inning after Rafael Belliard, on third base after a walk, a bunt and a grounder, scored on a triple by Steve Lyons.

Lyons, replacing injured David Justice and hitless in three previous at-bats this season, lofted a fly ball to the right-field warning track. Strawberry turned left and gave chase, but the ball sailed over his other shoulder. He made a desperate dive across the warning track while the ball bounced on the dirt out of his reach.