ANOTHER LOWE POINT RIGHT-HANDER BATTERED AS ARIZONA'S BATISTA DOMINATES DODGERS ARIZONA 8, DODGERS 0.

Byline: TONY JACKSON  Staff Writer

PHOENIX -- The Dodgers have shown a maddening inability this season to hit good pitchers. On Wednesday night, they showed a maddening inability to hit a mediocre one.

And it wasn't the first time.

Miguel Batista is a twice-published author and poet, a philanthropist and the man who donated the money used to construct the first baseball field on Native American tribal land in Arizona. In his spare time, he also works as a big-league pitcher, a savvy, veteran right-hander who never has been an All-Star and never won a dozen games in a season but has been good enough that he still is in the majors more than a decade after his debut.

But there are times when Batista, now in his second stint with the Arizona Diamondbacks, assumes the countenance of a perennial CyYoung candidate. It usually happens when he faces the Dodgers, whom he utterly humiliated yet again in sticking them with an 8-0 loss in front of 23,583 at Chase Field.

Batista went the distance, scattering six benign hits and allowing only two runners to get as far as second base, both of them after the Diamondbacks had the game well in hand.

The game was stunningly similar to one that took place at Toronto's Skydome on June 9, 2004, when Batista, then a member of the Blue Jays, turned in a four-hit shutout against the Dodgers and won 4-0.

``I thought that game in Toronto was one of the best games I have ever seen him pitch,'' said infielder Olmedo Saenz, one of only three Dodgers from that game still on the active roster. ``When his ball is moving, he can be tough. He kept the ball down again tonight, and I think that's why he pitched a good game.''

Batista doesn't make opposing clubs as nervous before a game as, say, teammate Brandon Webb, whom the Dodgers must deal with tonight. But he can drive a struggling offensive club bonkers, and there is perhaps no offense in baseball struggling as mightily as the Dodgers' right now. In seven games since the All-Star break, six of them losses, the Dodgers have scored a grand total of 14 runs and twice been the victims of complete-game shutouts.

Being blanked by reigning National League Cy Young winner Chris Carpenter last Friday is one thing. Being blanked by the non-threatening Batista is quite another.

``The way I have lived my life, I have always made a point of if you can't say anything good about something, don't say anything at all,'' Dodgers manager Grady Little said. ``So tonight, we're not going to talk about (the offense).''

The fact the Dodgers (47-48) had no shot at winning this one anyway almost obscured the fact that right-hander Derek Lowe's recent slide got even worse. After throwing an unusual three side sessions between starts, Lowe finally found the missing release point on his sinkerball and used it to great effectiveness in the first three innings, recording seven groundball outs and striking out the other two batters.

But after Chad Tracy led off the fourth with a single, the wheels came off again. Luis Gonzalez followed with a smoking liner that center fielder Kenny Lofton appeared to misjudge. It landed on the warning track, Tracy chugged home with the game's first run, and Gonzalez had his 525th career double, tying Ted Williams for 31st on the all-time list.

Two batters later, Johnny Estrada made it 2-0 with a single to center. Shawn Green, the outfielder the Dodgers were so eager to get rid of two winters ago that they paid the Diamondbacks $10 million to take him, then smacked a monstrous home run just to the left of straightaway center field, making it 4-0.

``We know he likes the ball out and away,'' a visibly frustrated Lowe said. ``I gave him what he wanted instead of taking a chance on walking him, which would have been no big deal.''

Lowe (7-7) was gone an inning later, having allowed five earned runs on 11 hits in 4 1/3 innings. Over his past five starts, he is 1-4 with a 9.59 ERA.

Asked if he could find any positives in this performance, such as the fact it began with three efficient, shutout innings, Lowe didn't bite.

``If you're a rookie, yeah,'' he said. ``But there comes a point when you just have to make some better pitches.''

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CAPTION(S):

3 photos, box

Photo:

(1) Arizona's Luis Gonzalez hits a double in the fourth inning Wednesday against Dodgers starter Derek Lowe.

(2) The Dodgers' Derek Lowe tries to compose himself after allowing five runs on 11 hits in 4 1/3 innings.

Paul Connors/Associated Press

(3) HENDRICKSON

Box:

DODGERS at ARIZONA

- Tony Jackson