DODGERS' ENCORE A FLOP L.A. BACK IN SECOND AFTER LOSS PITTSBURGH 10, DODGERS 6.

Byline: TONY JACKSON Staff Writer

For the Dodgers, Monday night's euphoria became Tuesday night's reality check. And first place in the National League West once again became the domain of someone else.

In a late-season letdown they won't soon forget, the Dodgers came crashing down from the emotional high they might have still been on following the previous evening's historic rally against San Diego. As a result, they basically sleepwalked their way to a 10-6 defeat at the hands of the Pittsburgh Pirates in front of 43,734 at Dodger Stadium.

So, for the second time in the past 72 hours, they ceded the division lead to the pesky Padres, who leapfrogged them again by beating Arizona. The Dodgers still lead the wild-card race, but by only a game over Philadelphia.

Initially, the Dodgers appeared to still be riding the emotional wave of what had happened the night before - when they hit four home runs in the ninth inning to tie the game and Nomar Garciaparra had hit a two-run shot in the 10th to win it - and it looked like it might actually carry them again.

Hong-Chih Kuo faced the minimum in the top of the first, pitching around a one-out single by Jack Wilson by picking him off first base, and Rafael Furcal hit his sixth leadoff homer of the season in the bottom half.

From there, though, the whole thing devolved into a devastating loss to a Pirates club that came to town 24 games below .500 and a starting pitcher whose dominating six-inning performance shouldn't have surprised anyone.

Right-hander Ian Snell, part of the Pirates' stable of promising young arms and the first Pittsburgh pitcher in seven years to win as many as 13 games, dodged bullets in both the first and second innings. He escaped a bases-loaded jam in the first by striking out the sizzling Marlon Anderson, and he got out of a first-and-third pickle in the second by getting Kenny Lofton to hit into a double play.

It marked the second time in a span of five plate appearances that Lofton had grounded into an inning-ending double play on the first pitch of an at-bat with a runner on third. From there, Snell (14-10) settled into a groove that the Dodgers could never quite get him out of. He held them to five hits while striking out seven, and the Dodgers went hitless in five at-bats with runners in scoring position during the six innings Snell was in the game.

The Pirates got a career-high five RBIs from right fielder Jose Bautista, including a sixth-inning grand slam off Elmer Dessens, to put the game away.

The Dodgers (79-72) tried to rally after Pirates reliever Damaso Marte began the seventh by walking Wilson Betemit. Furcal tripled with one out to make it 6-2, and Lofton drove in Furcal with a groundout to make it 6-3.

But that was offset in the top of the eighth when Dodgers manager Grady Little called on struggling reliever Brett Tomko, who might be in danger of missing the postseason roster cut - if, in fact, there is a postseason roster. Tomko wound up allowing four runs (one earned) on four hits and didn't survive the inning.

In his past four appearances, Tomko has allowed 10 runs over three innings. The fact three of those runs were unearned, leaving him with a 21.00 ERA for that stretch, does little to mitigate what is becoming a disturbing trend for the veteran right-hander, whose transition to the bullpen had initially gone so well.

The Dodgers then rallied again in the eighth. Anderson, who had gone 5 for 5 with two homers the night before, hit his third homer in nine at-bats, a three-run shot into the visiting bullpen in right field off Matt Capps to pull the Dodgers within four runs. But that was as close as the Dodgers would get to matching Monday's late-inning heroics.

Tomko's latest implosion notwithstanding, the blame for this one lies mostly with others. There was Kuo (1-5), who had posted a 1.50 ERA in his first two big-league starts and wasn't horrible in this one. But Little might have stuck with him too long, as an obviously tiring Kuo gave up two one-out hits and an intentional walk in the sixth before handing the ball to Dessens, who gave up Bautista's grand slam.

And then, there was J.D. Drew, who for some reason remains entrenched in the No. 5 spot in the lineup despite an alarming lack of clutch production. Drew went 0 for 4 with four strikeouts on Tuesday.

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CAPTION(S):

3 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- color) Dodgers pitcher Hong-Chih Kuo reacts as Pittsburgh's Xavier Nady rounds third after his fourth-inning home run.

(2) Dodgers shortstop Rafael Furcal tags out Pittsburgh's Jack Wilson at second after Wilson was picked off first base in the first inning.

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer

(3) MADDUX

Box:

DODGERS VS. PITTSBURGH

- Tony Jackson