DODGERS LACK FOCUS IN LOSS L.A. HURT BY EARLY ERRORS, CAN'T COMPLETE COMEBACK COLORADO 8, DODGERS 6.

Byline: Tony Jackson  Staff Writer

DENVER - In conjunction with its laughable attempt to simulate the actual sport of baseball, Coors Field possesses a remarkable ability to obscure a game's critical details. Fans tend to leave the place chatting about late-inning heroics still fresh in their memories, sometimes forgetting all about more significant developments that might have taken place hours earlier.

A perfect example came on Saturday night, when the Dodgers fell 8-6 to the Colorado Rockies in front of 30,272, extending their losing streak to three games.

Forget the combined 14 runs, the combined 23 hits, the 16 runners left on base by the Dodgers, the horrendous start by left-hander Odalis Perez and the hotly debated decision by manager Jim Tracy to allow Perez to hit for himself with the bases loaded and two outs in the fifth.

Focus instead on the Rockies' first two batters in the top of the first inning, and on the strapping Dodgers first baseman who doesn't hit especially well, doesn't field his position particularly well and doesn't run very fast.

Aaron Miles led off with a routine grounder to Hee-Seop Choi's immediate right. Choi reached down with his glove hand but failed to pick up the ball. It bounced several feet away. Although that left him no chance to get the speedy Miles, Choi blindly threw it to first anyway, unaware that Perez hadn't taken a single step toward covering the bag. Catcher Jason Phillips backed up the play, preventing the ball from going into the Rockies dugout and Miles from advancing.

The next batter, rookie sensation Clint Barmes, tried to lay down a sacrifice up the first-base line. Choi properly charged it, while second baseman Jeff Kent properly covered first. But with Kent practically standing on the bag, a confused Choi tried to dish the ball to Perez, who had jogged over toward the line to field the ball in case Choi couldn't.

That put runners on first and second with none out at a time when Perez should have had none on with two outs.

Six batters and four runs later, he finally got out of the inning, only to give up three more in the second to put the Dodgers in a 7-0 hole. From there, they would scratch and chip and claw their way back, only to come up empty when Kent grounded to shortstop with the bases loaded to end the game.

There was, however, a bit of good news for the Dodgers. X-rays came back negative on the right wrist of third baseman Jose Valentin, who was taken to a local hospital after being hit by a pitch in the eighth inning and writhing on the ground for several minutes.

Valentin suffered only a bruise and is listed as day-to-day.

But on an evening when the Dodgers went 4 for 14 with runners in scoring position and lost by two runs to a team that began this three-game series with the worst record in baseball, the good news ended there.

``We couldn't get two or three hits back to back,'' Phillips said. ``We couldn't get the big one to really break through. They made some errors, too, but we made (one error) that led to a couple of runs, and that kind of hurt us.''

The Dodgers (12-5) saw their lead over second-place Arizona in the National League West slip to 2 1/2 games after the Diamondbacks beat San Diego.

By utilizing their usual strategy of prolonged at-bats, the Dodgers had driven Colorado starter Shawn Chacon's pitch count into the stratosphere by the fifth inning. Ricky Ledee's two-run, two-out single closed the Dodgers to within 7-4, and Chacon (1-0) then walked Phillips to bring up Perez's spot. By that time, Perez had settled in nicely after those two disastrous innings, the bullpen was down a man because of Elmer Dessens' injury, and Tracy was dealing with the unknown of whether he will need reliever D.J. Houlton to make a spot start today.

So, Tracy sent Perez (3-1) to hit for himself. Perez, who already had singled in the third, pulled a liner toward the rightfield line. Rockies outfielder Michael Restovich ran it down to end the inning. It was the first of three times the Dodgers would leave the bases loaded.

Tracy later defended his decision.

``I knew I had a good-hitting pitcher at the plate,'' he said. ``I don't know if we could have gotten a much better at-bat than we got. He hit a vicious line drive to the right fielder. If you get trigger happy in this ballpark, it can mess up your pitching staff for days.''

Tony Jackson,[phone]

tony.jackson(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, 4 boxes

Photo:

(1 -- color) Colorado outfielder Preston Wilson hits a two-run home run in the second inning of Saturday's game.

(2) Dodgers starter Odalis Perez, left, meets with pitching coach Jim Colborn and catcher Jason Phillips in the second inning.

David Zalubowski/Associated Press

Box:

(1) DODGERS at COLORADO

- Tony Jackson

(2) GAME RECAP

(3) HOW THE RUNS SCORED

(4) ALMANAC