DODGERS' BATS IN THE COOLER OFFENSE STRUGGLES AGAINST PADRES DESPITE KEMP'S HR SAN DIEGO 5, DODGERS 3.

Byline: TONY JACKSON  Staff Writer

SAN DIEGO -- Matt Kemp's excellent major-league adventure, a story no Hollywood producer would touch if it were fiction because it wouldn't be believable enough, took another far-fetched turn on Wednesday night. But in a series in which the offensively potent Dodgers have suddenly taken on the look of a punchless bunch of banjo hitters, not even Kemp's latest heroics could save them from their free-swinging selves.

Or from a terribly timed bout of wildness by reliever Hong-Chih Kuo.

Moments after Kemp homered on the first pitch he saw in the first pinch-hit at-bat of his three-week, big-league career, tying a game the Dodgers had seemed destined to lose since they had fallen behind by a single run way back in the second inning, Kuo came on to pitch the bottom of the eighth and missed the strike zone with his first six pitches.

The result was all-too-predictable: a two-run San Diego rally and a 5-3 Dodgers loss in front of 30,011 at Petco Park.

With that, the Dodgers had just their second two-game losing streak in the past six weeks, and the pesky Padres had closed to within a game of the division-leading Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League West with their fifth consecutive win over the Dodgers dating to April 30.

The Dodgers had come to town leading the NL in batting average, on-base percentage and runs scored. But in the first two games of what might prove to be a pivotal series in an ever-tightening division race, they have scored a grand total of four runs, including three in 13 innings against Padres starters Chan Ho Park and Mike Thompson.

Thompson, a rookie right-hander making just his sixth start in the big leagues, got through seven innings on an amazing -- and for the Dodgers, disturbing -- 79 pitches.

``He was around the zone all night,'' Dodgers right fielder J.D. Drew said. ``He threw strikes. You can either stand up there and take three pitches or try to put the ball in play and see what happens. He made us swing.''

Thompson's stunning efficiency was never more in evidence than after Kenny Lofton led off the sixth inning by bunting his way aboard and taking second on Mike Piazza's throwing error. That put the tying run in scoring position with the Padres leading 3-2, just as they had since Dave Roberts' go-ahead, RBI single with two outs in the second.

Nomar Garciaparra then popped up on the first pitch. Drew then popped up on a 2-0 pitch. And Roberts then ended the inning, and saved a run, by making a sliding catch in left field on a sinking liner by Jeff Kent.

``That was one good example right there,'' Dodgers manager Grady Little said. ``When that kind of thing happens, it usually means bad things are going to happen for you the whole game. We have been good all season offensively. But the last couple of nights, we haven't been.''

The Dodgers (35-30) finally did tie the game when Kemp hit a ball a conservatively estimated 433 feet, dropping it onto a high platform fronting the batter's eye in straightaway center to lead off the eighth. It was Kemp's seventh homer and 16th RBI since he was promoted all the way from Double-A Jacksonville on May 28.

Little has been weaving Kemp and fellow rookie Andre Ethier in and out of the lineup, along with veterans Drew, Lofton and Jose Cruz. But Kemp already is among the front-runners for the NL Rookie of the Year award despite spending the first two months of the season in the minors. Little hinted after the game that Kemp probably can now count on being in the lineup on close to an everyday basis.

But the euphoria of Kemp's blast was short-lived. Kuo (0-4) began the bottom of the inning by walking Brian Giles on four pitches. Although he struck out Piazza after starting him 2-0, Adrian Gonzalez then hit a tie- breaking double into the left-field corner and took third on a throwing error by Rafael Furcal. It was the third error in the past two games by the Dodgers shortstop.

Josh Bard brought Gonzalez home with a single off Danys Baez, icing the game.

``It was just a bad day,'' said Kuo, who had been unscored upon in four appearances since his most recent callup June 3. ``I don't think it's a problem. I just have to throw strikes.''

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CAPTION(S):

3 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- color) San Diego's Mark Bellhorn is greeted in the dugout after hitting a two-run homer in the second inning.

(2) Dodgers' left fielder Andre Ethier, below, can only watch as a fan wearing a Dodgers jersey catches a home run hit by the Padres' Mark Bellhorn in the second inning of Wednesday's game.

Lenny Ignelzi/Associated Press

(3) BILLINGSLEY

Box:

DODGERS at SAN DIEGO

-Tony Jackson