ASTROS SHUT OUT DODGERS; BULLPEN LOSES GAME AFTER GOOD VALDES EFFORT : HOUSTON 7 DODGERS 0.

Byline: Brian Dohn Staff Writer

Dodgers manager Davey Johnson looked across the Astrodome turf to where the best pitching staff in the NL resides and shook his head.

``Houston doesn't have any better arms than we do,'' Johnson said. ``They throw it over the plate more. They have (111) less walks.''

The Astros also have given up 98 fewer runs than the Dodgers and, in starters Mike Hampton, Jose Lima and Shane Reynolds, they have 43 wins. The last came during Reynolds' five-hit, 7-0 shutout of the Dodgers on Thursday.

Those were types of numbers Dodgers starters were supposed to have, before this best-laid plan fell flat on its face.

The starting pitchers aren't pushing Kevin Brown for staff dominance. They're not even following his lead. Instead, they're far off the pace he was brought here to set.

``You want to see that little competition on the staff,'' Johnson said. ``That really hasn't come out.''

The Dodgers scored three runs in losing two of three to the Astros and their bullpen failed to keep this loss close after Ismael Valdes left the seventh trailing 1-0.

But another typical Valdes effort - one in which he pitches well but loses - doesn't mask how bad the Dodgers starters have been this season. A strong rotation - Brown, Valdes, Chan Ho Park, Darren Dreifort and Carlos Perez - was supposed to help the offense overcome its shortcomings and ease the burden on the bullpen.

``Probably the most frustrating thing for me is the inability of our starters to get quality starts,'' Johnson said. ``We're not going to be that kind of explosive, offensive club, but it makes it doubly tough to try to play catch-up. Brown has been good, Valdes has been good, but everyone else hasn't been good.''

That has translated into 50 quality starts in 108 games, an anemic 46 percent. Brown has 16 quality starts in 24 games. The others provide quality starts 37 percent of the time.

Valdes had his 15th quality start in allowing two earned runs on six hits in 6-1/3 innings against the Astros, but that has meant little in terms of success. He's 8-10 despite a 3.31 ERA, mostly because the Dodgers average 3.9 runs when he pitches.

``I wish I could pitch (poorly) and we still win,'' Valdes said. ``People see my record and say, `Geez, he (stinks).' But the people who know baseball understand that I'm pitching well. What can you do? Forget it and go to the next start. Some time it has to turn around. I'm doing the best I can and I think I'm doing a good job.''

Youth could be part of the problem, although Johnson doesn't think so. Park, 26, and Dreifort, 27, each have fewer than 100 career starts.

``I wouldn't think it's inexperience because we have experience,'' Johnson said. ``At times, I'm down (in the bullpen) with (Darren) Dreifort and I tell him, `If you throw that slider down the middle, some are going to be hit and some are going to get the corners. But if you throw at the corners, it's going to be a ball.'

``Chan Ho can paint both sides of the plate, but you can't do it too early in the count. You gotta be aggressive in the strike zone.''

Dreifort (4.7 walks per nine innings) and Park (4.1) are the leading culprits when it comes to walks. And with Perez in Triple-A, Park leads the starters with a 5.97 ERA and Dreifort is second at 5.63.

``With Kevin and Ismael, we have two solid starters,'' Dodgers general manager Kevin Malone said. ``I think Darren, he's shown flashes. He's developing as a starter, so you continue to give him the ball every five days and see what you have. What we'll continue to do is evaluate who we have and look to improve.''

But whether the nucleus is enough to overcome the other pitfalls facing the Dodgers is the big concern. Johnson and Malone will spend the next two months auditioning in-house candidates for roles on the staff, and there's also a debate of whether to send Dreifort back to the bullpen or leave him in the rotation.

Also, a decision must be made about Perez, who was 2-10 with a 7.43 ERA before his demotion last week.

``I think we have the nucleus of a quality starting rotation,'' Malone said. ``Carlos Perez has to re-find himself or we're going to have to go out and find a replacement.''

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Photo

Photo: Ismael Valdes, right, talks to Dodgers catcher Paul LoDuca after giving up a solo home run. Valdes trailed just 1-0 when he left in the seventh, but the Dodgers lost 7-0.

Pat Sullivan/Associated Press