A FUNDAMENTAL FLOP FOR L.A. ERRORS, EXECUTION COST DODGERS AGAINST CUBS CHICAGO 8, DODGERS 3.

Byline: Brian Dohn Staff Writer

Brian Jordan popped up to the mound. It turned into a double play. Corey Patterson drove in the go-ahead run on double. After he bunted.

Perhaps it will be nothing more than an ugly mole on a beautiful season, but both events promise to be remembered for quite some time, particularly because the Dodgers were more clumsy than even the fundamentally challenged Chicago Cubs.

Shoddy play and failed execution foiled the Dodgers, whose sloppy display brought groans of horror from the 46,026 who watched Fred McGriff slug two homers and drive in four runs and the Cubs beat the Dodgers 8-3 on Friday in the opener of a three-game series.

Delino DeShields led off the seventh inning with a double to left field off reliever Jesse Orosco. Patterson followed and pushed a bunt past charging third baseman Adrian Beltre. Before shortstop Cesar Izturis could field it near the outfield grass, DeShields was heading home. He beat the throw easily, and Patterson, who never stopped running, wound up on second.

Paul Quantrill relieved and hit Mark Bellhorn, who was unsuccessful in two bunt attempts, on an 0-2 pitch. McGriff followed with a three-run homer to cap a four-run inning and give the Cubs a 7-3 lead.

The mistakes, in magnitude and quantity, overshadowed what could have been a breakout offensive night for right fielder Shawn Green. He had a season-high three hits, and hits in five consecutive at-bats before striking out in the seventh inning.

Yet, there was so much more wrong for a team that built its early-season success on fundamentals and smart play.

The Dodgers scored twice in the third inning to take a 3-2 lead but couldn't break the game open despite having two runners on and none out. Jordan and Eric Karros failed to hit the ball out of the infield and Beltre flied out to center.

The usually heady Dodgers committed a big blunder in the bottom of the fifth inning, and it came from an unexpected source. With Green on first and one out, Jordan popped up to the pitcher's mound. Bellhorn, playing third base, crossed over the mound and dropped the ball but turned a double play because Jordan didn't run it out.

Instead, Bellhorn flipped the ball to first and McGriff tagged the base and then Green, who was standing a few feet away.

Starter Andy Ashby methodically had worked five innings and held a 3-2 lead, thanks largely to RBI singles by Paul Lo Duca and Green in the third off Cubs starter Juan Cruz. However, two pitches after the Jordan meltdown, McGriff hit an 0-1 slider over the center-field fence to tie it 3-3.

Ashby allowed four hits and three runs in six hard-working innings. He allowed homers to McGriff and Alex Gonzalez, who hit a two-run shot in the second inning.

There was more.

Dodgers manager Jim Tracy made it known after a pair of losses to Cincinnati earlier in the week he wasn't happy with the middle of the lineup, or the team's inability to capitalize with the bases loaded.

But the Dodgers wasted a glorious chance in the sixth inning with the score still 3-3. Karros and Beltre singled to begin the inning before Mark Grudzielanek, not a strong bunter, missed on three bunt attempts and struck out. Pinch hitter Dave Hansen walked to load the bases, but pinch hitter Marquis Grissom struck out and Izturis flied out to right.

That set up Patterson's doubled, and the Dodgers' demise.

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Photo:

(color) Chicago's Sammy Sosa hits the dirt in the third inning after nearly getting hit by Dodgers pitcher Andy Ashby. Sosa finished 2 for 5.

John McCoy/Staff Photographer