DODGERS' SETUP TURNS INTO SCREWUP : MILWAUKEE 9, DODGERS 7.

Byline: Brian Dohn Staff Writer

Even in an illogical season, there are times logic and common sense should rule.

So there they are, the Dodgers, finally on some sort of roll against the Milwaukee Brewers, the worst home team in baseball. There's Kevin Brown, one of the best pitchers in baseball, with a three-run lead in the sixth inning against a light-hitting team. And there's the Brewers, already into their makeshift bullpen.

It was the perfect set-up. You knew where this one was headed. It had to be in the Dodgers' favor.

``That's why we lost,'' Dodgers shortstop Mark Grudzielanek said after Jose Valentin's grand slam helped the Brewers rally for a 9-7 win in the series finale Wednesday at County Stadium.

Gone was the Dodgers' three-game sweep of the Brewers. The road trip went from a stellar 5-1 to a sour-tasting 4-2, and the quiet rumbling of perhaps catching fading San Francisco for second place in the NL West was again wiped away by the reality of another golden situation badly tarnished.

``Everyone I know was saying, `Sweep, sweep, sweep,' '' said Grudzielanek, a Milwaukee native with family in attendance. ``Brown was on the hill. That's what people were saying. You can't do that. We're supposed to win the game. We've got our No. 1 guy out there and you're supposed to win the game.

``Then you get the door slammed in your face. That's been happening all year. We need to go out and play hard every day. We can't worry about the other stuff.''

Brown didn't figure in the decision, but he was a big reason for the disappointment. The seven earned runs he allowed (in six innings) were more than double the amount he yielded in his four previous starts this month. It also brought an end to a six-start stretch in which the $105-million man went 4-0 with a 0.99 ERA.

``With K.B. on the mound, 99 out of 100 times, you're going to win the game,'' said Dodgers catcher Paul LoDuca, who had his second career homer. ``It's one of those years where you have to get over the hump. You keep waiting for it to happen. . . .''

But, as LoDuca then admitted, the Dodgers always slide back down. This is not an isolated incident. The Dodgers could have won their fourth straight for the first time since before the All-Star break. They took four consecutive victories into the second half, then lost to the Angels with Brown starting.

There haven't been many, if any, huge starts since then, but put in proper context, this loss to the Brewers had meaning. Nobody in baseball has been pitching as well as Brown, and the Dodgers staked him to a 5-2 lead on LoDuca's two-run homer in the fourth.

Are the Dodgers heading for the playoffs? No.

Are they still after respect? Indeed.

Brown retired the first batter of the sixth and then allowed three straight singles. Jeff Cirillo, 2 for his last 20 and without an RBI for 15 games, walked on five pitches to force in a run. Valentin then homered into the first row of the right-field stands for the Brewers' second grand slam of the season.

``Valentin, I don't know, he's been all world against us,'' Dodgers manager Davey Johnson said. ``That's one that you think you're going to put away. It would have been a great road trip instead of just a good one.''

The Dodgers should be used to this. They are set for expectations, poised to achieve it. Then they fall flat.

They rallied from a 7-5 deficit to tie it seventh, only to have flailing lefty Pedro Borbon (3-2) allow two runs in an inning of relief to lose it.

``It looked like we should have won the game,'' Grudzielanek said. ``We let this happen.''

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Photo

PHOTO (color) Jose Valentin is congratulated after hitting a sixth-inning grandslam against the Dodgers' Kevin Brown.

Morry Gash/Associated Press