BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : DODGERS : Karros Is Cleaning Up in No. 4 Spot

There is something about batting fourth that seems to work for Eric Karros. Since being moved to the cleanup spot 15 games ago, Karros is batting .333 (20 for 60) with one home run and seven runs batted in. He has an eight-game hitting streak and is batting .283 overall.

Last season, when Karros was a rookie, he was thrust in the cleanup role after Darryl Strawberry was sidelined because of a bad back. He met the challenge by batting .246 with 11 home runs.

“I think the reason Eric does so well is because he gets better pitches to hit,” Manager Tom Lasorda said. “Because when he was batting sixth, the seventh-place batter wasn’t as good as (Mike) Piazza, who was hitting in the fifth spot. So naturally, they were pitching around Karros to get to the eighth-place batter.

“Also, Karros concentrates more because he comes to bat more often with runners on base due to having (Brett) Butler and (Jose) Offerman in front of him.”

Karros also has gone 43 consecutive games without an error and has only one error in 51 games.

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Piazza’s single in the seventh inning Sunday was his first in 17 at-bats, ending his worst slump of the season. . . . Mike Sharperson, sidelined because of a strained left hamstring, has been available to pinch-hit.