Dodgers Have a Giant Task Ahead : Baseball: Gross goes distance against Cubs, but key distance is 11 1/2 games in series against San Francisco that begins tonight.

A day off for Brett Butler in baseball is an oxymoron usually followed by kicking and screaming and heartfelt expressions of anger and worthlessness.

It was all Butler could do Sunday to get his lips to form the words necessary to approach Manager Tom Lasorda and ask to be seated. Usually he would have to be shackled to the water cooler.

Butler, 36, rested on the seventh day and squirmed his way through the Dodgers’ 3-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs at Dodger Stadium so there would be no excuses tonight when his team hosts a crucial three-game series with the division-leading San Francisco Giants.

Eleven and one-half games out in late June was not what the Dodgers had in mind, but all the signs have been posted: The route back to the top in the west winds north through San Francisco.

For the occasion, Butler, who in only one season since 1983 has played fewer than 151 games, became an honorary .j batboy.

“I never do that,” he said of the request to rest. “But I felt like I needed it. I wanted to be fresh for tonight. Tonight is when the war starts. There ain’t anyone in this room that’s given up yet. I guarantee it. We can still win this thing.”

The Dodgers thought it important to bring some momentum into the series and do so, thanks to two victories in a row over the Cubs.

Saturday night, they rallied from four runs down to beat Chicago.

Sunday, starter Kevin Gross provided a complete-game six-hitter. Gross, who has grounds to sue for nonsupport this season, kept his mouth shut and his fastball down.

In improving to 6-6, Gross struck out seven and did not walk a batter until Mark Grace slipped away with two out in the ninth inning.

After a quick pep talk from catcher Mike Piazza, Gross finished off the Cubs by getting Derrick May to fly to left.

Gross faced the minimum number of batters through four innings and was touched up only in the fifth, when he gave up a scratch run on a line drive that shortstop Jose Offerman could not snare and dunk singles by Rick Wilkins and Rey Sanchez.

Gross started planning for the heat Saturday night.

“I really pounded the water,” he said. “And I ate two giant plates of pasta. Day games can really get to you. It’s tough when it’s hot and smoggy. I could feel it in my chest.”

Gross also gained four pounds, the result of devouring six doughnuts.

What a guy won’t do for the good of the club.

Still, Gross needed his best stuff because the Dodgers wasted their chances against Cub starter Jose Bautista, despite collecting 12 hits.

Every Dodger in the starting lineup had a hit except second baseman Lenny Harris.

But three runs were all the Dodgers were offering Gross, who was 1-2 in his last four starts despite an earned-run average of 2.06.

“If I sit there and worry about how many runs we score, I’ll just end up in the hole,” Gross said. “I think I’m over that stuff.”

The Dodgers got Gross the two runs he would need in the third inning, when Piazza drove Eric Davis home with a sacrifice fly and Eric Karros, who doubled, scored on Cory Snyder’s single.

They added another run in the fifth on singles by Offerman, Piazza and Karros.

Offerman went three for three and is hitting .366 at home.

Bautista (2-2) lasted six action-packed innings and surrendered three runs and all 12 Dodgerhits.

But enough about the Cubs.

Has there ever been a bigger upcoming series in June?

“It’s not do or die,” Davis said of Giant series. “But when you’re playing the first-place team at home, you’ve got to play hard. If not, you’ll get buried.”

Don’t be surprised if Butler is first to the park tonight.

“It has to start with us,” he said of derailing the Giants. “It’s the only way we’re going to catch them.’