CARRARA CAN'T SAVE DODGERS L.A. RALLY WASTED IN MONTREAL MONTREAL 8, DODGERS 7.

Byline: Tony Jackson Staff Writer

MONTREAL - In the end, the finger of blame could be pointed in any number of directions, all of them away from Giovanni Carrara.

There was the aberrational bad start by the usually-reliable Odalis Perez. There was the potential big inning the Dodgers wasted early in the game, settling for just one run after Shawn Green grounded into a double play with the bases loaded and one out. There was manager Jim Tracy's continued refusal to go to his Cy Young Award-winning closer, or even to have him warming up, in a non-save situation on the road, even with the winning run just 90 feet away. But ultimately, it was Carrara who was standing in the middle of the diamond with the game on the line. And ultimately, it was Carrara who didn't get it done.

The journeyman right-hander carried an 18 2/3-innings scoreless streak into the bottom half of a ninth inning in which the Dodgers already had tied the game on a dramatic, two-run homer by Adrian Beltre. With two outs and runners on first and second, Carrara gallantly battled his way through two lengthy plate appearances by Montreal's Tony Batista and Juan Rivera. But eventually, Carrara walked both of them, forcing in the winning run and saddling the Dodgers with an 8-7 loss to the Expos before 8,639 on Monday night at Olympic Stadium.

As he walked dejectedly off the field, Carrara wasn't interested in any outward finger pointing. He wasn't interested in finding an escape route from the media, either, choosing instead to stand at his locker and answer every question about his first significant failure since the Dodgers purchased his contract from Triple-A Las Vegas almost two months ago.

``I tried to make good pitches, but they battled,'' Carrara said. ``There's nothing I can do. It's a tough loss after we came back that way, but all we can do is come back and win (tonight).''

On an evening when they managed little offensively through the early innings, the Dodgers finally showed signs of life in the seventh after Expos starter Sun-woo Kim had left the game. Steve Finley chased former Dodgers reliever Joey Eischen with a two-out, three-run double, and Beltre singled off Luis Ayala to cut what had been a 7-1 Expos lead to 7-5.

With one out in the ninth, Finley singled off Expos closer Chad Cordero (4-3). Beltre followed with a seven-pitch at-bat in which he fouled off three two-strike pitches before finally depositing one into the front row over the right-center field wall, tying the game.

Carrara (3-1), who already had thrown a perfect eighth, got Jamey Carroll to roll over to short to begin the ninth. But after Brian Schneider drove a one-out double down the right-field line, Tracy ordered Carrara to walk Brad Wilkerson intentionally. Carrara then struck out Alex Gonzalez, setting the stage for Batista and Rivera.

Carrara ran the count full on Batista, who then fouled off three pitches - two of which were nowhere near the strike zone - before drawing the walk. Rivera then came to the plate, blooping one pitch over the head of first baseman Robin Ventura only to see it bounce no more than a foot to the foul side of the right-field line.

Given another chance, though, Carrara couldn't take advantage. With the count 2-2, he threw two balls to Rivera, and Schneider trotted home with the winning run.

``I tried to throw a straight fastball, but it got away,'' Carrara said. ``Those were great at-bats. They fouled off a lot of good pitches. There are no excuses. I threw a lot of strikes, but I didn't get it done.''

Tony Jackson,[phone]

tony.jackson(at)dailynews.com

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