[0] DODGERS GIVE LITTLE SUPPORT : WEAKENED MARTINEZ LOSES TO CARDS ST. LOUIS 6, DODGERS 3.

Byline: Eric Noland Daily News Staff Writer

In any other line of work - poring over actuarial tables, catching crooks, laying sewer pipe - the boss probably would have said, ``Appreciate you coming in, but why don't you go home early? You've been under it with that flu. Call it a day. Get off your feet.''

Ramon Martinez's stock in trade, however, is pitching for the Dodgers, and in their furious pursuit of the San Diego Padres in the National League West, they wanted to squeeze him for all they could get Tuesday night.

Martinez reacted about the way you might expect for a fellow whose rail-thin frame was wracked by a raging fever for most of last week. Against the St. Louis Cardinals, he breezed for three innings, then slammed into an unseen wall, and he and the Dodgers were powerless to prevent the Cardinals from taking a 6-3 victory before 29,096 fans at Dodger Stadium.

It probably didn't help any that Tom Candiotti, a starting pitcher thrust into a relief role to support Martinez, admitted that he felt out of kilter while trying to work out of the bullpen. He certainly looked it, failing to keep the game close. Also, the Dodgers' chronically anemic offense didn't exhibit any vital signs until the ninth inning, when it was a bit too late to count for anything.

Martinez staggered through an eight-batter fourth inning as the Cardinals pushed two runs across. He gave up three hits. He walked the opposing pitcher to force in a run with two outs. He looked bushed.

``He just made some bad pitches,'' said catcher Mike Piazza. ``I guess he's weakened from being sick.''

Piazza has a grasp of the obvious in other areas, too. He knows how much he means to the Dodgers' run production, given the fact he is the league's leading hitter on a team that is next to last in the major leagues in runs scored.

Piazza's bum right knee forced him to take his bat out of the lineup after six innings, and he said he doesn't know what the next step will be. ``It's just been a little discomforting. I haven't been enthused with the way it's been feeling,'' said Piazza, who is hitless in his past 11 at-bats. ``I have to take care of it and live through it.

``This time of year, I might have to take some time to get it better.''

Asked to elaborate, he didn't, really. Perhaps because Piazza knows the Dodgers' prospects during a four-game series in Atlanta this weekend would be pretty bleak without him.

The Dodgers, on a night when their win streak was halted at three games, wasted an opportunity to climb to within 1-1/2 games of the headlong-plunging Padres in the West. The second-place Dodgers, having concluded this homestand with a 4-4 record against three weaklings from the NL Central, remain 2-1/2 games back.

And in this game, nothing much worked.

The Dodgers' pitching, which sports the best ERA in baseball (2.99), has been keeping the team in every game lately but faltered this time.

After Martinez went one inning too many, Candiotti stumbled through innings five through eight, yielding four runs on eight hits. In the seventh, Tom Prince, Piazza's replacement behind the plate, committed two passed balls on fluttering knuckleballs, one of which allowed a run to score on a strikeout.

Candiotti, who clearly did not relish this relief assignment, said he felt ``very strange. I guess that's why they make starters and they make relievers. . . .

``Once you're a starter, you develop a mentality with your preparation. (In relief), you don't have your pregame routine of getting loose. It was a tough thing to do, it really was.

``I was doing all I could to settle in and it just wasn't happening.''

As usual, nothing much was happening at the plate for the Dodgers, either.

Against St. Louis starter Donovan Osborne (5-3), they collected eight hits over as many innings but produced just one run. In the fifth inning, Juan Castro was thrown out at the plate while trying to score from second, as the pinpoint throw of Cardinals left fielder Mark Sweeney arrived on the fly.

The Dodgers stirred in the ninth against the St. Louis bullpen, scoring two runs, but former Dodger Rick Honeycutt ended the rally and the game by getting Delino DeShields to pop up on the infield with two runners aboard.

Once the Cardinals began to pull away in the middle innings, the conclusion was pretty much foregone, anyway. Over their past 10 games, the Dodgers have averaged 3.2 runs per game. And in games when the opposition has scored five or more this season, they are 0-17.

MOVING UP

A look at how the Dodgers closed the gap on the first-place San Diego Padres during their homestand:

Date Res. Score Opp. GBL 

6-4 Loss 3-0 Pittsburgh 5

6-5 Loss 7-3 Pittsburgh 6

6-6 Win 8-3 Pittsburgh 5-1/2

6-7 Loss 2-1 Cincinnati 5-1/2

6-8 Win 5-4 Cincinnati 4-1/2

6-9 Win 3-2 Cincinnati 3-1/2

6-10 Win 2-1 St. Louis 2-1/2

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos, Chart

Photo: (1--color) The Dodgers' Eric Karros is for ced out at second base by the St. Louis Cardinals' Luis Alicia in the second inning.

(2) Raul Mondesi falls to the ground after hitting the ball into his ankle. He got up and stayed in the game.

Terri Thuente / Daily News

Chart: MOVING UP (see text)