[0] BUMBLING IT AWAY; DODGERS DO NOTHING BUT HELP CUBS AND LOSE : CHICAGO 4, DODGERS 2.

Byline: Eric Noland Daily News Staff Writer

This being a pennant race brimming with late-summer intrigue, the Dodgers have picked an inopportune time to contract a case of the blahs.

They lost for the third time in four games Tuesday night - 4-2 at Dodger Stadium to a team no more formidable than the Chicago Cubs. Perhaps even more troubling, they looked horrid at about every step of the way.

A runner thrown out at the plate. A bunt thrown away to bring home a Cubs run. A ball misplayed into a triple. A delayed summons to the bullpen when Hideo Nomo was obviously in the throes of trouble. A sequence in which the Dodgers opened an inning with four consecutive hits . . . and scored all of one run.

``We've become a bit stagnant offensively. It reaches back to Cincinnati,'' catcher Mike Piazza said with a sigh - he's aware the Dodgers have scored 2, 1, 2 and 2 runs over their past four games. ``It's part of the peaks and valleys of the season.

``We need to try to have guys contribute when all parts of our game aren't happening.''

Especially when the gap in the National League West has just widened back to 2-1/2 games.

The front-running San Francisco Giants are no doubt delighted with signs of Dodgers regression: L.A.'s 10 hits were all singles and for the second night in a row, eight baserunners were stranded.

The Dodgers are desperately hoping center fielder Otis Nixon, acquired Tuesday from Toronto, will represent a partial solution. But as listlessly as this bunch has been playing lately, it might have been more appropriate to trade for Otis Day and the Knights.

``It starts from the top (of the lineup),'' Piazza said. ``They set the tone. When they get on base, things are going to happen.''

Neither did Tuesday, much to the consternation of 50,731 fans who turned out for Nomo and free towels - perhaps not necessarily in that order.

The top two slots in the lineup produced a 1-for-9 night with no runs (and no runner advancing to second base, for that matter).

A tone set? Unmistakably.

The Dodgers repeatedly wasted scoring opportunities against Mark Clark (9-7), who just joined the Cubs in trade from the New York Mets.

L.A.'s Greg Gagne, for example, failed to slide while trying to score from second on Nomo's bases-loaded single to left in the fifth inning. Gagne instead kind of stumbled into the plate and was easily tagged out on Doug Glanville's throw.

One inning earlier, Raul Mondesi was thrown out at third by Cubs catcher Scott Servais on what appeared to be a busted hit-and-run play involving Todd Zeile.

The Dodgers' troubles weren't limited to the offensive side, though.

The Cubs' final run scored in the seventh inning when Zeile picked up Clark's sacrifice bunt and sailed a throw high over first baseman Eric Karros' head for an error - Zeile's team-leading 20th of the season.

Chicago's first run, meanwhile, crossed the plate when the Dodgers' Wayne Kirby, who likely will surrender the everyday center-field job to Nixon tonight, couldn't track down a Sammy Sosa blast in the fourth inning and had it clear his head for an RBI triple.

Nomo (11-9), who has yielded 26 hits over his past three starts (18-2/3 innings), couldn't overcome all of this. He limited Chicago to one run through six innings, but his collapse was total in the seventh.

After Dave Hansen led off with a single off the glove of second baseman Wilton Guerrero, infielder Jose Hernandez, who had entered the game just moments before to replace an injured Shawon Dunston, drilled a two-run home run to dead-center field. Then came a sequence of double, walk, Zeile's error and Nomo's exit.

``When I delivered the pitch, I wasn't expecting that at all,'' Nomo said of Hernandez's homer.

Well, he should have. It was a fastball, middle of the plate, belt-high.

``It's hard to come in from the bench,'' said Hernandez. ``You can't think curve or slider, only fastball. And if he's going to throw me a fastball, I'm going to take advantage of it.''

But control within the strike zone has been an ongoing concern for Nomo in recent weeks. ``When my balance is off, my pitches tend to go high,'' he said. This pitch also went long, by about 420 feet.

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Photo

Photo: (color) Mike Piazza tags Chicago's Lance Johnson out in the Cubs' win.

Hans Gutknecht / Daily News