Aggressive Dodgers Warm to Task, Win : Baseball: They get homers from Strawberry, Wallach, Reed in 6-4 victory over Giants.

SAN FRANCISCO —  The Dodgers, looking dismal, arrived here Friday faced with the possibility of leaving 9 1/2 games out of first place.

But don’t stick a fork in them yet.

Rather than cooking them, the unlikely warm weather at Candlestick Park seemed to heat up the Dodgers’ bats on Sunday.

Darryl Strawberry, Tim Wallach and Jody Reed hit solo home runs as the Dodgers beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-4.

The Dodgers won two games of the three-game series.

“It’s big, it’s important, it’s all those . . . big words that sum up what it means to win these past two games,” Wallach said. “We get swept and we would have buried ourselves.”

Instead, the Dodgers begin a three-game series today in Chicago in fifth place, 5 1/2 games behind the first-place Giants.

“It’s a huge turning point for our ballclub,” said Orel Hershiser (3-2), who gave up a two-run home run to Matt Williams in the first inning but then allowed only one more hit for six innings.

“I think the team’s consistent play has done it. If we execute the fundamentals, then we play well and don’t get into a hole. When you are not executing, you have a negative momentum and it’s like working uphill. The first game here, we didn’t play well and we lost. The last two games we did (play well) and we won.”

Jody Reed figured in the Dodgers’ first three runs when he tripled and scored in the first inning and homered to left field in the third. Reed’s triple scored Brett Butler, who had singled, and the homer came with the bases empty.

Reed said the team’s offensive turnaround goes back to a meeting the players had in Philadelphia on April 25. In the 12 games since, the Dodgers are 7-5.

“In that meeting we cleared the air and talked about playing aggressive, and we have came out since then and played that way,” Reed said. “That’s the turning point.”

The weather was warm enough for Strawberry to make his first start in right field in six games. His home run represented hope that his lower back is gaining strength.

“It tells me my swing is back, and I’ve been looking for it for a long time,” Strawberry said. “It tells me I have no problems with my back. I switched to Eric Karros’ bat because it is lighter and the bat speed is quicker.”

Using a 31-ounce bat instead of his usual 33-ounce model, Strawberry hit a towering shot off Giant starter Jeff Brantley (2-2) into the right-field seats to tie the score, 4-4, in the sixth inning. It was Brantley’s first pitch of the inning, and he only threw four more before Wallach hit a two-and-two fastball over the 360-foot marker in left field to put the Dodgers ahead, 5-4.

“The program the doctor (Robert Watkins) has me on is working out well,” Strawberry said. “The doctor said if I work hard, the results will come. I feel better and stronger now than I did in Florida (in spring training).

Eric Davis, who is hitless in his last 14 at bats, was benched Sunday and replaced by Mitch Webster in left field.

Webster dropped Royce Clayton’s fly in left field in the fourth inning, with Robby Thompson scoring to give the Giants a 4-3 lead.

But Webster atoned for his error in the ninth inning when he doubled, stole third base and scored on a slow bouncer back to the pitcher by Jose Offerman.

“No question about it, we are playing more aggressively and having fun and that’s what is doing it,” said Jim Gott, who relieved Omar Daal in the eighth inning and retired five Giants in order for his fourth save.

“Last year we played tense baseball, and that’s what killed us. Now we are starting to relax. All facets of the game are coming together for us now.”