Dodgers Get a Shot in Arm From Daniels : Baseball: He sparks a 5-2 victory over the Cardinals with a two-run homer and adds a double.

After quietly smoldering for the first seven weeks of the season, Kal Daniels became the disruptive influence Tuesday night that some teammates claimed he would be.

Except, the people he disrupted were the St. Louis Cardinals.

With a last laugh in his sights, Daniels hit his first home run of the season and added a double to lead the Dodgers to a 5-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals before 22,494.

“Since the season started I could have been a bad guy, I could have gone to the press with my complaints, I could have caused all kinds of trouble,” Daniels said before the game. “But people don’t realize, that has never been my style. I chose to be quiet.

“I figured if I could get a chance to play and do what I could do, that would be all I needed to say.”

With injuries to Darryl Strawberry and Eric Davis, that chance has come. And Daniels’ timing could not have been better, considering the Dodgers were coming off their most disheartening loss of the season, a 6-5 comeback win by the Cardinals on Monday night.

“When you lose a game like that, things can easily fall down the toilet,” Lenny Harris said.

But by the time Tuesday’s game was three batters old, Daniels had put a baseball in the rose garden along the left-field wall to give the Dodgers’ 2-0 lead against Omar Olivares. The hit, following Harris’ double, was Daniels’ first homer since Sept. 17, 1991.

On a night during which the Cardinals’ Ozzie Smith collected his 2,000th hit, the Dodgers were enamored of some of their firsts.

--Dave Hansen and Dave Anderson hit consecutive home runs in the second inning, the first time the Dodgers have done that since July 27, 1991. It was Anderson’s first home run this season.

--Anderson’s home run was the first by a Dodger starting shortstop since Aug. 19, 1990, when Jose Offerman homered in his first major league at-bat.

--Bob Ojeda (3-3) was given substantial breathing room for the first time this season, a 5-0 lead. But he didn’t need it, allowing two runs and seven hits in 8 2/3 innings.

“One thing everybody was saying on the bench was that we were the last two guys (you would expect) to go back to back,” said Anderson, who made his second start of the season at shortstop because Offerman is suffering from tendinitis in his right shoulder.

The Dodgers’ three home runs and two doubles in the first three innings were also a shock, giving them more extra-base hits than they managed in 36 of their 39 previous games.

“The next month is very important to us,” Anderson said. “We can’t get too far behind with all of our injuries or we won’t be able to catch up. We have to try to keep our heads above water and hope we keep getting help from the rest of the division, where nobody is playing real well right now.”

The Dodgers desperately need Daniels, which sounds funny considering Strawberry said last winter that he should be traded because of his attitude and work habits.

Fred Claire, Dodger vice president, tried to trade him, and then converted him to a first baseman when the Dodgers acquired Davis.

“So then I learn first base during the spring, and the season starts, and I’m a platoon first baseman,” Daniels said. “It affected me early but now . . . I’m here, I’m playing, and I’m happy.”

Daniels was so confused at not being allowed to face left-handed pitchers, he began taking batting practice right-handed and ended up twisting his right knee.

He sat out 17 days because of the injury, and Tuesday he was making his seventh start since returning. In those six starts he was batting only .217 with one extra-base hit.

“I still feel like its the start of my season, my swing is just starting to come around,” he said. “My knee is still bothering me, but, hey, I’ve got a chance to play now, and I want to take it.”

With the Dodgers leading, 4-0, in the third against reliever Juan Agosto, Daniels doubled to center field. He took third on a single by Eric Karros and scored on a fly ball by Todd Benzinger, whose eight-game hitting streak ended.

“This was the old him,” Harris said of Daniels. “It’s been a hard year for Kal. He’s taken a lot of grief from a lot of people. But once he starts hitting, he’s going to be hitting for a while.”

Ojeda gave up runs in the fourth and fifth innings, but stranded two runners in three of his final four full innings. John Candelaria retired Ray Lankford on a fly ball with Gerald Perry on first to end the game and get his second save.