A SIGH OF RELIEF ADAMS GOES FROM STOP-GAP TO STOPPER.

It's not going to happen. Go ahead, scream, ``Wake up!'' Scream it all you want and it won't change a thing.

Terry Adams is not going anywhere. He's not suddenly going to go bust, turn into a pumpkin, or most certainly, back into a nondescript middle reliever.

All summer long, the rest of the National League has waited for the Dodgers right-hander to go belly up. To be the guy they thought he was. A solid middle reliever, a nice addition to the staff.

Anything but what he's become: the Dodgers' best starting pitcher.

A little difficult for that to sink in? The cerebrum won't absorb some bullpen guy morphing into the best pitcher on what was supposed to be one of the finest rotations in baseball?

It is absolutely true. You can't even argue against it.

Think that this month sore-elbowed Kevin Brown will be the pitcher he was before? There's a greater chance he's headed for offseason elbow surgery than completely regaining his arm strength this September.

Chan Ho Park is all over the place. He's as dependable as a teen-ager with a 10 p.m. curfew. Who knows what you're going to get with this guy each night out?

James Baldwin and his swelling ERA (6.03 in his last five starts)? Youngsters Eric Gagne and Luke Prokopec, now warming a seat in the bullpen? Andy Ashby and Darren Dreifort, DL'd for the season?

Nope, the man who leads the Dodgers staff in their September run is the man who was supposed to be setting up closer Jeff Shaw. Back in the shadows, not the spotlight.

It's not just that Adams is 11-6 with a 4.38 ERA, it's the way he's progressed this season.

``He's getting better and there's still room for improvement,'' Dodgers manager Jim Tracy said.

Adams has a 2.82 ERA in his last six starts. He spent the last six years as a reliever and has pitched more than 101 innings in a season once in his life. At a time when you'd think his 139 2/3 innings would be adding up, when he should be wearing down, he's getting stronger. This fill-in, this emergency starter in an injury-riddled rotation has become its unexpected anchor.

When Brown went on the disabled list for the second of his three visits this season, you would have called Tracy's starting Adams on June 5 a desperation move - he had never started a game in his six-year major-league career - if it hadn't been born out of pure genius.

Tracy decided last December that Adams might be a potential starter.

``He had done it in the minor leagues and I just felt from a durability standpoint he'd be able to do it,'' Tracy said.

Yeah, that was some minor-league career Adams had as a starter. His first year in 1991, he went 0-9 for the Cubs rookie team in Huntington, Va.

``Mentally, I was just a mess,'' Adams said. ``It was my first time being away from home. Being 18-years-old and living on your own, being around new guys, traveling on buses 14 hours all the time. It just took me awhile to get adjusted.''

Only the Cubs decided he never would make the adjustment as a starter. He was a fastball-slider pitcher, which was usually good for one trip through the lineup. In '94, the Cubs decided his future was in relief. The move paid off and he spent the next five seasons in the bullpen.

``He got better and better and just found his niche as a reliever,'' said Jim Riggleman, the Dodgers bench coach and former Cubs manager.

Then again ...

Riggleman said the Cubs viewed Adams as a potential closer. He saved 18 games in 22 opportunities in '97, but the next year they signed Rod Beck.

Adams figured his time as a closer would come. What he didn't figure on was becoming a starter again. This wasn't some guy sitting back, burning for his chance to get back in the rotation.

``I didn't think about starting at all,'' Adams said. ``I always thought maybe down the road I'd be a closer still. Zero percent did it enter my mind about starting a major-league game.''

Yet when Tracy called in December and suggested they stretch Adams out in the spring, he was all for it.

``I thought if I could be a starter around Kevin Brown, Chan Ho, Dreifort and Ashby - wow - that'd be a lot of fun,'' he said.

But the Dodgers had signed Ramon Martinez, Carlos Perez was coming off surgery, and Gagne and Prokopec showed promise, so Adams didn't get his hopes up.

Then their starting pitchers began getting knocked off like mechanical ducks at a shooting range. Adams was 2-2 with a 5.10 ERA in the bullpen when he got the call. It wasn't looking like the managerial move of the century.

``With the guys we had, I figured I'd make some starts here and there, but when guys started getting healthy, I'd be put back,'' Adams said.

He hasn't pitched in relief since. He's just gotten better. At 6-foot-3 and 215 pounds, he has the frame to handle the extra innings. And in a rotation devoid of a stopper, Adams has unexpectedly emerged as the closest thing the Dodgers have to a reliable starter.

Get used to it. Adams has proven in his 18 starts he's not some illusion, some brief overachiever. He's the Paul Lo Duca of the Dodgers pitching staff. And he doesn't even tease Riggleman with any ``See what you were missing?'' comments.

``Listen, I don't think anybody - including myself - expected me to be in this situation right now,'' Adams said. ``I just expected to be setup man, middle relief.

``But I'm glad I've had success. I'm having a lot of fun. Hopefully, this might be very beneficial to the future.''

Yes, Adams picked a great year for a breakout. He'll be a free agent at the end of the season and plans to test the market. Starting pitching being scarce as modesty at Barry Bonds' locker, Adams could command a three-year, $20 million contract.

And since Adams was miffed the Dodgers forced him into arbitration last year ($2.6 million), there's no guarantee he'll be returning.

What they know at the moment is - surprise, surprise - he's the best they have.