'PEN CERTAINLY ISN'T MIGHTY FOR DODGERS.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

So, what have we learned from these early Dodgers-Giants skirmishes? For one, we've learned the Dodgers are no good in games that run past midnight. This will be trouble when they're playing those late World Series games in, say, Baltimore or Tampa Bay.

The immediate problem is that the Dodgers get worse as the game gets longer, whether or not it goes until 12:04 a.m. like the one they lost on a ninth-inning run as a rainy Friday night was turning into Saturday morning.

The effect is demoralizing.

If baseball games were five innings, the Dodgers would be 8-4 and in the thick of the wild-card race. Under the recognized rules of the sport, they are clawing at .500 after seeing opponents score winning runs in the sixth, the seventh, the eighth and (twice) the ninth innings in just the season's first two weeks, the credit for those losses officially passed around to relief pitchers Lance Carter, Hong-Chih Kuo, Franquelis Osoria and Tim Hamulack.

It wasn't supposed to go this way.

``(Eric) Gagne was ready, and we had (Yhency) Brazoban and me,'' said Danys Baez, thinking back to Opening Day, lo these many mound mishaps ago. ``We thought we were going to have one of the strongest bullpens.''

Gagne hadn't pitched this season before it was determined last week that he needed another round of elbow surgery. Baez moved into Gagne's closer role, Brazoban into Baez's set-up job.Brazoban's record consisted of a blown save when he felt something funny in his elbow and was scheduled for Tommy John surgery. Now those with set-up experience are asked to fax resumes to general manager Ned Colletti.

The Dodgers' first crisis of 2006 has nothing to do with maintaining a cocoon of safety around Barry Bonds at Dodger Stadium or keeping their elderly players from being cited for crossing streets too slowly.

It's the bullpen, which only began to right itself Saturday when Saito and Baez preserved Odalis Perez' 3-1 victory against the Giants.

I wouldn't want to attach too much significance to this, but it wasn't encouraging Friday night when Kuo almost managed to screw up an intentional walk to Bonds during the Giants' ninth inning, nearly throwing the first three balls over catcher Dioner Navarro's head with the go-ahead run on third base.

Of course, since Bonds was hitting .167 (0 homers, 1 RBI) at the time, maybe Kuo was having a psychological reaction to the idea of walking him.

Kuo, 24 years old, from Taiwan; Saito, 36, from Japan; Osoria, 24, from the Dominican Republic, and Hamulack, 29, from Ithaca, have a combined major-league won-lost records of 0-7, a wealth of inexperience in the pen of a division favorite.

Saturday (later that same day), before the Dodgers played Game 2 against the Giants, manager Grady Little dropped a broad hint that Saito is pitching his way into the role of eighth-inning specialist.

In a bullpen that was 0-5 going into the weekend, somebody has to step up, besides Baez.

``I can't tell you who it's going to be,'' Colletti said. ``I can just tell you relievers sometimes come to the front of the line through opportunity.''

Trades are hard to come by between the opening of the season and the July trading deadline. The Dodgers have a top prospect in reliever Jonathan Broxton down at Las Vegas, but he's a 21-year-old with a month in the big leagues last summer, no sure-fire solution to the experience shortage.

For now, Colletti has to hope that what he calls bullpens' ``volatile and unpredictable'' nature works in the Dodgers' favor.

``Very few guys are developed in the minor leagues to be relief pitchers,'' Colletti said. ``I would say most of the time, your set-up men, your closers, come out of situations like this. Some seize the opportunity, and away they go.''

It's not only the bullpen. Starters Perez, Jae Seo and Brett Tomko have surrendered leads of 5-0, 3-0 and 3-0. Throw in the past two nights' signs of a clutch-hitting slump, and a number of things don't feel right in the early going. But at least until Gagne is back in six weeks and in form _ Brazoban is gone for the season _ the bullpen is the main project.

Remember in Gagne's Cy Young Award heyday, when Guillermo Mota was pitching in front of him, when Dodgers manager Jim Tracy talked about the bullpen making it a seven-inning game? Now seven innings is too long. Colletti and Little have been great so far at the big picture.

Colletti has given the franchise a plan by signing veterans to short-term contracts as bridges to the Las Vegas kids. Little has set the right tone by saying he'd be happy with a 7-7 start from a yet-to-jell team of new arrivals.

Circumstances are complicating things and putting the GM and manager to the test.

What if the bullpen answer doesn't spring from the existing roster? What if they fall short of even as modest a goal as 7-7? Then it's later than they think.