AT WORST, DODGERS STILL WIN; NOMO IS HIT HARD IN VICTORY OVER CUB : DODGERS 13 CHICAGO 9.

Byline: Kevin Acee Daily News Staff Writer

On the day the pennant race officially began in the National League West, the Dodgers' starting pitcher had his worst outing in two months, their bullpen allowed runs for the first time in a week, and a miscommunication between two young players cost them a run.

It just didn't matter.

Just as they figured this whole season would go, the Dodgers won 13-9 with little suspense. A few hours later, the Giants, behind newly acquired starter Wilson Alvarez, beat Cincinnati 8-7 to maintain the first-place tie in the NL West.

The Dodgers beat the Cubs on a woefully hot and windy afternoon at Wrigley Field, where the Cubs could not fight off their ninth straight loss and the Dodgers couldn't help but win for the seventh time in seven games.

``That's just the way we're playing right now,'' Dodgers manager Bill Russell said, not marvelling at the brilliance of it all. ``Right now we're doing everything right.''

Not everything but enough. Definitely enough.

Raul Mondesi had his third straight three-hit game, scored three runs and drove in a run. He is batting .688 this week (four games). Todd Zeile emerged from a 4-for-30 stretch with a three-run homer and a run-scoring single. Todd Hollandsworth, a sporadic starter in center field these days, continued to produce with two doubles and three RBI. He is batting .328 with nine RBI since being recalled from Triple-A on June 30.

For the second straight day, a Dodgers pitcher got his 10th win of the season. Hideo Nomo, however, did it in an entirely different fashion than Chan Ho Park, who held the Cubs to three hits and a run in eight-plus innings on Thursday.

Staked to a 7-0 lead by the time he came out for the third inning, Nomo slowly leaked.

A solo home run in the third. A two-run homer in the fourth. Two singles and a double for two more runs in the fifth. Another two-run homer in the seventh. It added up to Nomo's worst line of the season: seven runs, all earned, on 11 hits in 6-2/3 innings.

``I wasn't struggling, I just wasn't pitching well today,'' said Nomo, who did strike out 10. ``My pitches were bad.''

So often, a pitcher doesn't struggle here. He just makes bad pitches.

Friday, a deceivingly strong 16 mph wind blowing through home plate and out to left field didn't help any of the pitchers. Seven of the nine pitchers who got in the game saw their ERAs swell.

The Cubs hit a season-high five homers to spur their comeback. They scored in six of the final seven innings, tagging Antonio Osuna for a solo home run in the eighth and Darren Hall for the same in the ninth, bringing to a close the bullpen's streak of 14-1/3 scoreless innings during the winning streak.

But the Dodgers, who scored six of their runs off rookie starter Jerami Gonzalez, never led by less than the final four-run margin. They fell a run short of tying their season high for runs in a game because in the fourth inning, Hollandsworth slowed down approaching home after Nomo's single, did not slide and was tagged out. Roger Cedeno, the next batter, whose job it is to do so, said he signalled for Hollandsworth to slide. No one in the stadium, and certainly not Hollandsworth, saw the signal, however.

``Some of it was wind-blown, some of it was both teams' pitchers didn't have it today,'' Russell said. ``There were a lot of runs scored. We just happened to score more.''

So it goes for the Dodgers, who have won 21 of their past 28 games while erasing the Giants' eight-game lead.

After the game, the Dodgers went ahead with their Friday night plans in this happening town. If they happened to catch the Giants score before the morning paper, so be it. If not, there's 53 games to play. And, anyway, who are the Giants to be feared?

``Some people say it's an arrogance, confidence, cockiness, whatever you want to call it,'' Zeile said. ``Most great teams I've played on or played against have that air. They think they're going to win. The other teams can sense that. . . . When this team started clicking, you started to see that air.''

Tying the Giants was not the goal. The goal, just as it was coming out of spring training, is to bury all comers.

``We're thinking about putting distance between us and everyone else,'' Zeile said.

Evidently, they can't help it.

CAPTION(S):

Photo, Box

Photo: Raul Mondesi steals second base while Cubs shortstop Rey Sanchez awaits the late throw. Mondesi advanced to third on an error.

Associated Press

Box: DODGERS TODAY