BELTRE MAKES L.A. REMEMBER FORMER DODGER HELPS MARINERS GET VICTORY SEATTLE 9, DODGERS 4.

Byline: TONY JACKSON Staff Writer

Adrian Beltre has been wearing a Seattle uniform for a season and a half now, and it still doesn't fit all that comfortably. But in his first return since bolting for free agency two winters ago, Beltre found that Dodger Stadium still fits him like a finely tailored suit.

The one-time Dodgers hero walked into the place for the first time since Game 4 of the 2004 National League Division Series and played like he had never left. He swatted a two-run homer and a leadoff double in his first two at-bats and drove J.D. Drew to the base of the right-field wall with a loud flyout in his third.

It was enough to lead the Mariners to a 9-4 victory on Tuesday night, knocking the backsliding Dodgers out of first place in the National League West after their fourth consecutive defeat.

The game was played in front of a crowd of 43,949 that neither cheered nor booed Beltre but instead seemed surprisingly indifferent.

If they remembered anything about that `04 campaign when Beltre had his long-awaited breakout year, batting .334 with a major league-leading 48 homers while driving in 121 runs and finishing second in the National League MVP balloting they werent letting on. Or perhaps the fact Beltre took the money and ran, to a city where, by all accounts, he has never been happy, served to cloud any recollections of those halcyon days.

For Dodgers fans, Beltre is a distant memory now. And so are those halcyon days.

After dropping six of nine on their just-completed trip, the Dodgers found home to be no more hospitable. It was clear from the beginning that Brad Penny, one of only two starting pitchers to have won a game for the Dodgers since May 24, was off his game. He gave up a leadoff single to Ichiro Suzuki, extending Ichiros hitting streak to 16 games, and Beltres two-run blast before recording an out.

And although the Dodgers came back to tie it in the bottom of the first, Penny couldnt keep it that way. He gave up a run in the second on Ichiros sacrifice fly and another in the third when Richie Sexson followed Beltres double with an RBI single. That put the Dodgers in a 4-2 hole from which they never really recovered.

Beltre walked in his final two plate appearances. For the game, he reached base four times, scoring four runs, and drove in two.

The Dodgers (36-34) fell a game behind San Diego in a ridiculously tight division race that started the day with just 1 1/2 games separating the top from the bottom.

Penny (7-2) plodded his way through six innings, saving the bullpen on a night that began a stretch of nine consecutive games without a day off. But the Mariners got to him for five runs on 10 hits, including homers by Beltre and Sexson. Penny hadnt lost at home this season.

Struggling reliever Hong-Chih Kuo relieved Penny to start the seventh and promptly walked the first two batters he faced before giving up an RBI single to Ibanez. Kuo was immediately lifted without having retired a batter and would be charged with two runs.

Kuo, whose ERA jumped to 6.41, had seemed like the logical choice to be sent to the minors to make room for Cesar Izturis activation from the disabled list. But Kuo somehow survived, with infielder Willy Aybar the odd man out instead.

Seattle's Joel Pineiro (6-7) wasn't much better than Penny, but he did manage to minimize the damage from giving up 10 hits in 6 1/3 innings. The Dodgers helped his cause by stranding seven baserunners against him, three of them in scoring position.

Trailing 5-3, the Dodgers tried to rally in the fifth, getting runners to first and second with one out before Drew launched what appeared to be a go-ahead, three-run homer to left-center. But the ball died in the notorious night air of Chavez Ravine, and Raul Ibanez hauled it in on the warning track, sending Kenny Lofton and Nomar Garciaparra scrambling back to their respective bases. Jeff Kent then beat out an infield single to load the bases, but Matt Kemp grounded in to a fielders choice to end the Dodgers last, best threat.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos, box

Photo:

(1) Seattle's Adrian Beltre hits a home run in the first inning of Tuesday's game, which the Mariners won 9-4.

(2) Rafael Furcal scores past catcher Kenji Johjima from second on a single by Nomar Garciaparra.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer

(3) BILLINGSLEY

Box:

DODGERS vs. SEATTLE

- Tony Jackson