[0] DODGERS FRUSTRATED BY REDS : CINCINNATI 2, DODGERS 1.

Byline: Eric Noland Daily News Staff Writer

Eric Karros swung from the heels and connected solidly.

The baseline didn't have a chance.

It was an act of exasperation in the third inning Friday night, after the Dodgers first baseman tapped back to the mound for the final out, stranding two baserunners. As Karros slammed his bat into the dirt just beyond home plate, he probably expressed the pent-up frustration of an entire squad.

With a 2-1 loss to the Cincinnati Reds before 35,197 fans at Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers lapsed back into familiar form.

One evening, they feel all buff and burly with eight whole runs and 12 hits in a win over the Pittsburgh Pirates. Twenty-four hours later . . . pffft!

This time, in losing for the third time in four games on this homestand, they were doused by a familiar adversary, left-hander John Smiley. He shut them out for seven innings and then waited nervously as former Angel Lee Smith wobbled through the eighth and Jeff Brantley, after giving up a leadoff home run to Mike Blowers in the ninth to ruin the shutout, held on.

Smiley (5-6) hasn't lost to the Dodgers since early in 1993, compiling a 3-0 record and 1.80 ERA along the way.

And it just doesn't figure.

The Dodgers' lineup is stacked heavily on the right side of the plate, what with Mike Piazza, Karros and Raul Mondesi forming the heart of the lineup. But they are hitting a combined .128 (5 for 39) against this guy for their careers.

Lately, of course, the Dodgers haven't been terribly productive no matter who's standing out on the mound opposite them. In the four games preceding L.A.'s eight-run thunder against the Pirates on Thursday night, the team had a four-game stretch in which it produced three, one, zero and three runs.

Then this.

The Dodgers, as usual, had their chances, but stringing together hits for a big inning has not been a particular forte this season.

After Smith took over for Smiley in the eighth inning, Todd Hollandsworth came up with a one-out pinch single to right, and moved to second on the next out. But that was it. Smith, baseball's all-time saves leader, went to a full count on Piazza before getting him on a broken-bat groundout to short; went to a full count on Karros before walking him (first base was open at the time); and went full on Mondesi before getting the Dodgers' resident free-swinger to flail at a curveball well off the plate and nearly in the dirt.

Brantley worked a similarly nervous ninth for his 14th save in 16 opportunities. After Blowers' home run, he struck out the side, getting Milt Thompson and Dave Hansen looking, and Chad Fonville swinging - awkwardly.

The Dodgers' eighth inning against Smith was just the team's final chapter of futility. There were two preceding it.

Roger Cedeno and Piazza got on ahead of Karros in the third, but Karros' dribbler traveled only as far as the front edge of the mound.

With two out in the sixth, the Dodgers again made some noise, as Karros singled up the middle and Mondesi doubled down the left-field line. But the inning ended when Blowers' ground smash was right at third baseman Jeff Branson for the final out.

In the face of all this, Dodgers starter Ismael Valdes (6-4) had no chance. But he should be credited just for surviving with his sanity intact.

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2 Photos

PHOTO (1--color) Hal Morris slides into the Dodgers' Del ino DeShields, preventing him from completing a double play.

(2) Ismael Valdes throws out Curtis Goodwin, but he couldn't do it alone against the Reds.

David Sprague / Daily News