BAD START JUST GETS WORSE FOR DODGERS LOSS TO PADRES PUTS L.A. 3 1/2 OUT OF WILD-CARD RACE SAN DIEGO 9, DODGERS 4.

Byline: RICH HAMMOND 

Staff Writer

Those late-arriving Dodgers fans, the ones who pulled off the freeway in the middle of the second inning Tuesday night, would have been wise to turn around before they handed over $15 to park.

A half-hour into the game, the Dodgers faced a four-run deficit.

Starting pitcher Esteban Loaiza made only brief flirtations with the strike zone and gave up a towering home run to San Diego's Brian Giles.

A stirring comeback? Maybe on some nights, but not against Jake Peavy, National League Cy Young Award favorite and noted Dodgers dominator. Peavy thrived again, Loaiza got pulled in the fourth inning and the Padres earned a crucial 9-4 victory over the Dodgers in front of 51,620 at Dodger Stadium.

At the start of a homestand against San Diego and Arizona, one that is likely to determine whether the Dodgers spend October on baseball fields or golf courses, they looked nothing like playoff contenders. James Loney went 3 for 5 with a home run and two RBIs, but that wasn't enough to bail out Loaiza.

Claimed off waivers last month, Loaiza pitched seven solid innings for the Dodgers last week. Tuesday, with the benefit of seven days' rest, Loaiza tossed glorified batting practice to the grateful Padres.

Loaiza (1-1) walked the bases loaded in the first inning, then gave up a Khalil Greene sacrifice fly and a Kevin Kouzmanoff single to put the Dodgers in a 2-0 hole before they had a chance to pick up a bat.

It only got worse, as Giles hit a two-run home run in the second.

In a questionable decision, Loaiza stayed in the game and Greene and Kouzmanoff clinched the victory with back- to-back home runs in the third.

By the time Loaiza left, with one out in the fourth inning, the Dodgers faced a 6-1 deficit and had only the faintest of hopes for a comeback against Peavy, whom they failed to beat in four previous starts.

Peavy (17-6) pitched seven innings. He allowed two runs on five hits, walked two and struck out five.

Loaiza, who allowed six hits, walked four and struck out five, wouldn't be needed in the playoffs.

But first, the Dodgers need to get there, and that seems increasingly unlikely with 18 games remaining.

The Dodgers blew a tremendous chance Tuesday. They could have gained ground on the Padres, who lead the National League wild-card race, and second-place Philadelphia, which lost to Colorado.

Instead, the Dodgers fell 31/2 games behind the Padres, two games behind the Phillies and into a third-place tie with the Rockies, on a night when they actually hit Peavy better than they usually do.

Peavy entered as the NL's leader in wins, ERA and strikeouts, and had an 8-1 career record against the Dodgers. In three of his four games against the Dodgers this season, Peavy dominated, and in their previous meeting, Peavy pitched seven shutout innings and allowed only two hits on Sept. 1 in San Diego.

Arizona roughed up Peavy in his past start, for eight runs in four innings, so it seemed unlikely that he would turn in a second consecutive clunker, particularly against a team that hadn't beat him since 2003."This guy is tough," Dodger manager Grady Little said before the game, "but he can be gotten."

The Dodgers didn't touch Peavy until the third inning, when Loney hit his home run. But that only reduced the Padres' lead to 6-1, and the Dodgers failed in their only attempt at a rally against Peavy.

Peavy had retired seven Dodgers in a row when Juan Pierre led off the sixth inning with a double. Pierre moved to third on Loney's single and scored on Jeff Kent's single.

The Dodgers, down four runs, had a chance at a big inning but Luis Gonzalez flied out and Russell Martin grounded into a double play.

The Padres pushed their lead to 9-2 in the seventh inning, when Geoff Blum hit a solo home run, Mike Cameron scored on Roberto Hernandez's wild pitch and Brady Clark hit a RBI single.

Loney's eighth-inning RBI single cut the Dodgers' deficit to six runs, and rookie Chin-Lung Hu hit his first home run in the ninth off former Dodger Brett Tomko.

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DODGERS

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Dodgers (Lowe 11-12) vs. San Diego (Germano 7-9), 7:10 p.m., Dodger Stadium.

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Esteban Loaiza allowed six runs in 3 1/3innings Tuesday against the Padres, giving up four home runs in the process.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer

(2) Fans at Dodger Stadium hold up an American flag during a pregame ceremony Tuesday night.

Keith Birmingham/Staff Photographer