BUMBLING IT AWAY; DODGERS DO NOTHING BUT HELP CUBS AND LOSE : CHICAGO 4, DODGERS 2.

Byline: Eric Noland Daily News Staff Writer

This being a pennant race brimming with late-summer intrigue, the Dodgers have picked an inopportune time to contract a case of the blahs.

They lost for the third time in four games Tuesday night - 4-2 at Dodger Stadium to a team no more formidable than the Chicago Cubs. Perhaps even more troubling, they looked horrid at about every step of the way.

A runner thrown out at the plate. A bunt thrown away to bring home a Cubs run. A ball misplayed into a triple. A delayed summons to the bullpen when Hideo Nomo was obviously in the throes of trouble. A sequence in which the Dodgers opened an inning with four consecutive hits . . . and scored all of one run.

All of this, coinciding with a victory by the front-running San Francisco Giants, shoved the Dodgers back to 2-1/2 games off the pace in the National League West.

The Giants are no doubt delighted with signs of Dodgers regression: In the past four games, L.A. has scored 2, 1, 2 and 2 runs.

The Dodgers are hoping center fielder Otis Nixon, acquired Tuesday from Toronto, will represent a partial solution. As listlessly as this bunch has playing lately, it might have been more appropriate to trade for Otis Day and the Knights.

The Dodgers managed just one run through six innings against Chicago starter Mark Clark, the accomplished right-hander who was making his first appearance since coming over in a recent trade with the New York Mets.

The Dodgers aided his cause considerably by running themselves out of a couple of scoring opportunities.

Greg Gagne, for example, failed to slide while trying to score from second on Nomo's bases-loaded single to left in the fifth inning. Gagne instead kind of stumbled into the plate and was easily tagged out on Doug Glanville's throw.

One inning earlier, Raul Mondesi was thrown out at third by Cubs catcher Scott Servais on what appeared to be a busted hit-and-run play involving Todd Zeile.

The Dodgers' troubles weren't limited to the offensive side, though.

The Cubs' final run scored in the seventh inning when Zeile picked up Clark's sacrifice bunt and sailed a throw high over first baseman Eric Karros' head for an error - Zeile's team-leading 20th of the season.

Chicago's first run crossed the plate when the Dodgers' Wayne Kirby, who likely will surrender the everyday center-field job to Nixon tonight, couldn't track down a Sammy Sosa blast in the fourth inning and had it clear his head for an RBI triple.

The Dodgers also managed just two runs on Monday night, but Chan Ho Park's brilliant pitching made it count for a victory. Nomo (11-9), whose ragged performance of late directly coincides with a July 26 mishap in which a line drive caught him above the right elbow, couldn't keep up in this one.

In three starts since getting stung by a batted ball against Philadelphia, Nomo has compiled a 6.75 ERA, with a yield of 26 hits in 18-2/3 innings.

In this game, Chicago could manage only four hits and one run against him through six innings - and the run resulted from Kirby's inability to chase down Sosa's drive.

Nomo finally broke down for good in the seventh inning. And in a hurry.

Infielder Jose Hernandez, who had entered the game just moments before to replace an injured Shawon Dunston, drilled a two-run home run to dead-center field.

It was only the fifth homer of the season for Hernandez, but it did not compel the Dodgers to make a call to the bullpen. That didn't occur until the next batter, Servais, doubled into the left-center alley.

By the time Nomo got the hook two batters later (after a walk and a sacrifice), Chicago had three runners home, the last crossing the plate on Zeile's error.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1--color) Mike Piazza tags Chicago's Lance Johnson out in the Cubs' win.

(2) Wayne Kirby, right, could be relegated to the bench with Otis Nixon's arrival.

Hans Gutknecht / Daily News