DODGERS ALLOW ONE GIANT COMEBACK L.A. CAN'T CLOSE OUT RIVAL, AS BAEZ GIVES UP FOUR IN 9TH SAN FRAN. 6, DODGERS 5.

Byline: TONY JACKSON  Staff Writer

SAN FRANCISCO -- From the moment Eric Gagne went on the disabled list more than a month ago, Dodgers manager Grady Little made it clear that Danys Baez's stint as the team's closer would be short.

As it turns out, it might be shorter than even Little anticipated.

Once again, Baez took what should have been a clean situation and a tidy save and made a complete mess of it, blowing a three-run, ninth-inning lead.

The result was the latest kick in the stomach for the star-crossed Dodgers, a 6-5 loss to the hated San Francisco Giants in front of a sellout crowd of 42,864 Saturday at AT&T Park.

As if Baez needed any help with his latest blowup -- and he didn't -- he got some anyway. Rookie third baseman Willy Aybar committed an error in the ninth on an easy groundball by Pedro Feliz to put Giants at first and second with none out.

Aybar had earlier cost starter Aaron Sele a run, allowing a potential doubleplay ground to skip under his glove and up the line for what was ruled a single.

Lance Niekro's one-out single in the ninth made it 5-3. Todd Greene's double made it 5-4. Dan Ortmeier's pinch-hit single made it 5-5. Omar Vizquel's sacrifice fly to shallow right field made Baez a scapegoat once again after his fifth blown save in 14 opportunities.

Meanwhile, the wait for Gagne to return from the disabled list becomes more anxious by the minute. Given that it won't happen until at least mid-June, the question is whether the Dodgers can afford to wait that long.

``We have a lot of confidence in Danys,'' Little said. ``Our alternatives are on the DL and will be coming back shortly. Danys will keep getting the ball in those situations, and hopefully, the results will be different for him.''

Quietly, though, the Dodgers are believed to be considering a change. Takashi Saito, the 36-year-old rookie who was a successful closer in Japan, pitched a perfect eighth inning, retired all four Giants batters he faced Friday night and now has retired 15 consecutive batters over his past five appearances.

Baez, meanwhile, has a 7.71 ERA in six appearances beginning April30, when he conspired with Lance Carter to blow a five-run lead in the ninth inning at San Diego.

``This job isn't easy,'' Baez said. ``You're going to have days like that, and you're going to have good days when you only throw three pitches and get a save. You just have to be ready for the next day. If you can't put it behind you, you won't be able to do it.''

Baez (2-2) knows he won't be able to do it much longer if he doesn't start, well, doing it.

Meanwhile, Barry Bonds continued to spin his 41-year-old wheels in pursuit of Babe Ruth for second place on the all-time home-run list. Bonds took a called third strike, flied to deep left-center and walked on four pitches against starter Aaron Sele.

Bonds then grounded to first against Saito in the eighth and now is 0 for 7 in the first two games of the series.

That Bonds remains stuck on 713home runs, one behind Ruth, is of little consolation to the Dodgers. Baez's ninth-inning implosion notwithstanding, the game might have turned out differently if the defensively challenged Aybar -- who will get most of the starts while the defensively gifted Bill Mueller misses at least a month with a knee injury -- could have made either of the two plays he didn't.

The Dodgers had utility infielders Ramon Martinez and Oscar Robles, both superior defensively to Aybar, on the bench. But Little chose not to insert either of them in the ninth.

``Sometimes, you just make errors,'' Aybar said. ``That ball (in the ninth) took a bad bounce. On the other one, I thought the ball was going to come up, and it didn't.''

It also didn't help that the Dodgers (18-19), who fell four games back in the National League West and into a last-place tie with the Giants, went 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position. J.D. Drew was stranded on third after a one-out triple in the sixth when Jeff Kent and Sandy Alomar grounded out weakly.

``We have a little trouble killing them off with a lead late in the game,'' said Little, who in the past two weeks has watched his club blow three games it seemed to have well in hand. ``It's not pretty to watch, but we're getting pretty good at getting over it.''

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CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- color) San Francisco's Jose Vizcaino, right, scores the winning run as Dodgers catcher Sandy Alom Jr. fields the late throw Saturday.

Eric Risberg/Associated Press

(2) Dodgers third baseman Willy Aybar slides but can't stop Ray Durham from turning a double play.

Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images

Box:

DODGERS at SAN FRANCISCO