CAN'T WIN `EM ALL PADRES GET TO ERICKSON, HALT DODGERS' 8-GAME WINNING STREAK SAN DIEGO 6, DODGERS 1.

Byline: Tony Jackson  Staff Writer

SAN DIEGO - Despite perfectly executing their usual game plan of patient, prolonged at-bats designed to wear down the opposing starter, the Dodgers on Thursday night finally came across a pitcher they couldn't overcome.

This pitcher wore a Dodgers uniform. His name was Scott Erickson.

The veteran right-hander handed his club a deficit too large to make up on an evening San Diego's Adam Eaton was typically brilliant and the Padres bullpen was typically sound. As a result, the Dodgers' eight-game winning streak came crashing to earth in a 6-1 loss to the Padres in front of a sellout crowd of 42,326 at Petco Park.

Erickson, making his third start since bull-rushing his way onto the staff with a spectacular spring training, failed to make it through the fifth inning for the second time. He occasionally lapsed into adequacy, retiring six batters in a row in the second and third, but otherwise flirted with disaster most of the way.

In the bottom of the fifth, those flirtations finally led to something disastrous. With the Dodgers already trailing 2-0, Erickson gave up a one-out single to Mark Loretta (St. Francis High of La Canada Flintridge), then walked Brian Giles on four pitches. Phil Nevin popped up for the second out, but from there, the wheels quickly came off.

Ryan Klesko made it 3-0 with a double up the gap in right-center. Ramon Hernandez then made it 5-0 with a bloop single to right that fell about two feet in front of J.D. Drew, a ball that might have been caught had Drew not pulled up at the last moment.

With that, Erickson was done, having thrown 97 pitches in 4 2/3 innings while his ERA ballooned to 7.80.

The Dodgers tried to mount another of their patented, late-inning rallies, the kind that result from making the opposing starting pitcher work so hard to record early outs that he winds up with an inflated pitch count by the middle of the game. Eaton blanked the Dodgers on four hits over the first five innings, but the right-hander was nearing 100 pitches by the start of the sixth.

Eaton walked Drew to begin the inning. Jeff Kent followed with a double, putting runners on second and third and chasing Eaton from the game. If the Dodgers were licking their collective chops at the prospect of getting into the Padres bullpen, they would be sorely disappointed in the outcome.

Chris Hammond retired the next three batters to escape the inning, with Drew scoring the Dodgers' only run on Jose Valentin's flyout to right. Hammond and Rudy Seanez shut out the Dodgers on one hit the rest of the way, reminding everyone in the visiting dugout that no matter how invincible they might have felt over the past 10 days, they were bound to lose sometime.

The Dodgers (12-3) begin a three-game series tonight at lowly Colorado, a place that, at least in theory, should provide the perfect cure for this one-game losing streak.

The Dodgers would have lost this game by a bigger margin had it not been for two spectacular throws by center fielder Milton Bradley, who cut down Nevin trying to score from second on Sean Burroughs' two-out single in the seventh and nailed Loretta trying to go first-to-third on Giles' two-out single in the eighth.

In the top of the ninth, the Dodgers' frustration over losing for a third time in 17 days and failing to build upon their 4 1/2-game lead in the National League West finally boiled over. After being called out on strikes, Jose Valentin barked at plate umpire Andy Fletcher all the way back to the bench. When Valentin didn't drop the matter after reaching the dugout, Fletcher ejected him. Manager Jim Tracy then came out to argue with Fletcher and also got the boot.

Erickson (1-1), a former 20-game winner, now has a major-league record of 2-5 with a 7.07 ERA since the start of last season. It probably is too soon to start questioning whether the 37-year-old still can get it done at the major-league level. He pitched well enough Saturday night, against these same Padres, to earn his first win as a Dodger.

Former Dodger Dave Roberts, in his first appearance against his old club, went 2 for 5 with a double, a stolen base, a run and an RBI.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, 4 boxes

Photo:

(1 -- color) J.D. Drew slides home with the Dodgers' only run, on Jose Valentin's sixth-inning sacrifice fly, trimming the Padres' lead to four runs.

(2) First baseman Hee-Seop Choi doubled and singled in his first two at-bats, but it led to little in the Dodgers' defeat Thursday night.

Lenny Ignelzi/Associated Press

Box:

(1) GAME RECAP

(2) HOW THE RUNS SCORED

(3) DODGERS at COLORADO

(4) ALMANAC