DODGERS HAVE RELAPSE; WINNING STREAK HALTED : CHICAGO 2, DODGERS 1.

Byline: Eric Noland Daily News Staff Writer

The Dodgers' longest winning streak of the season ended with a regression to the style of play that inspired it to begin with.

Boneheaded defense. Fizzled rallies. Fine pitching wasted.

All of that was present last week, when the Dodgers lapsed into such a funk that only a team-wide catharsis pulled them out of it, triggering a four-game win streak. But all of those distressing elements crept back into their game Saturday night in a 2-1 loss to the Chicago Cubs before 44,519 at Dodger Stadium.

See if this has a familiar ring to it: ``They didn't beat us,'' said manager Bill Russell, ``we really beat ourselves.''

And see if any of this revives fresh memories: Defensive gaffes resulted in both Cubs runs being unearned; the Dodgers stranded two runners at third base and three at second; and even a gift opportunity to rally past the losingest team in baseball in the ninth inning was squandered.

The dunderhead tone was set early.

The game's second batter, Ryne Sandberg lifted a lazy, one-out fly ball to medium left-center field. Center fielder Todd Hollandsworth settled beneath it, and Billy Ashley drifted in from left field. Crash, the fielders collided, with Hollandsworth sent sprawling by his 235-pound teammate and the ball landing harmlessly on the turf for a two-base error (on Ashley).

Hollandsworth lay for a long time in the grass - more from apparent annoyance than from pain - and Sandberg ultimately came home with an unearned run when former Dodger Dave Hansen drilled a two-out single up the middle.

``I think (Ashley) just kind of heard me late,'' said Hollandsworth, who said he was calling all the way - and, as center fielder, holds the trump card on such plays. ``It was one of those balls hit between us. We both went after it aggressively, and we're both looking at the ball and didn't see each other.''

The all-thumbs contagion found Todd Zeile at third base three innings later. He bobbled the one-out grounder of Brooks Kieschnick, and, in his haste to get his throw over to first, overshot a leaping Eric Karros. Zeile was charged with two errors on the play, boosting his total to a team-high six.

The Dodgers' three errors on the night matched a season high.

Even with all of that, however, they had a chance to overcome 9-17 Chicago in the final inning.

Terry Mulholland shut out the Dodgers through two outs in the ninth, but he was lifted for closer Mel Rojas after giving up a single to Karros. That spelled imminent disaster for the Cubs.

Rojas, the goat in the Dodgers' comeback victory Friday night, promptly gave up singles to Raul Mondesi and Zeile, the latter driving in the Dodgers' only run and putting the potential game-tying run 90 feet from home plate.

But Terry Adams worked out of the trouble, getting Wayne Kirby to ground to first to end the game.

The Dodgers' sloppy effort wasted another strong pitching performance by Ismael Valdes, who fell to a hard-luck 1-4 on a night when he scattered five hits over 7-2/3 innings and struck out a season-high seven batters. Valdes has seen the Dodgers score 2, 3, 0, 1, 3 and 1 run in his six starts this season.

``We've been scoring more than two runs a game,'' said Russell, ``but we just couldn't do anything with Mulholland. We just couldn't get the big hit when we needed it.''

There is absolutely no explanation for this against Mulholland, a left-handed pitcher. The Dodgers' lean-to-the-right lineup had right-side swingers stacked from No. 2 to No. 6 in the order.

Mulholland seems immune to any damage from this bunch, though. In coming within one out of his first shutout in four years, he lowered his career ERA against the Dodgers to 1.94.

About the only bright spot offensively for the Dodgers was Zeile, who went 2 for 4 with a ground-rule double and drove in the team's only run.

Zeile, since being benched in the midst of a dreadful stretch last week in Atlanta, has since gone 7 for 17 with seven RBI. His at-bat against Rojas in the ninth was particularly impressive, since he looked at three balls, took two strikes to fill the count, then fouled off three pitches before getting something he could line into left field.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1--color) Billy Ashley, foreground, and Todd Hollandsworth collide in the outfield.

(2) Ismael Valdes, right, needed encouragement from Mike Piazza. The Dodgers scored only once.

John McCoy / Daily News