DODGERS STALLED YET AGAIN LEAVE 11 RUNNERS ON BASE IN DEFEAT.

Byline: TONY JACKSON 

Staff Writer

In the end, it wasn't about the marquee pitching matchup between a pair of two-time All-Stars that quickly dissolved into bad comedy. It wasn't about the blister on the right hand of Brad Penny, who summoned a trainer from the Dodgers dugout in the first inning but ultimately decided to stay in the game, whereupon he was relentlessly rocked.

It wasn't even about the two home runs by Atlanta's Chipper Jones, from either side of the plate no less, that finally brought resolution to all this madness and stuck the Dodgers with an 8-6 loss to the Braves in front of 41,052 on Thursday night at Dodger Stadium.

Because in the end, lost amid the chaos of the 14 runs, the 27hits, the four errors and the ridiculous 313 pitches, it was about the same thing it has been about on so many other recent occasions for the Dodgers.

Specifically, all those baserunners, and all those hitters who kept finding ways not to drive them in.

Before the Braves scooted out of town with a four-game split and the Dodgers were left to ponder another opportunity missed -- several opportunities, for that matter -- the home team managed to leave 11 runners on base, more than half of them in scoring position.

It was the third time in the past two weeks the Dodgers have stranded at least that many runners in a game they lost by tworuns or less.

On this one, rather aberrational occasion, neither Penny nor Atlanta stalwart Tim Hudson came close to living up to his pedigree. But Penny refused to blame his worst outing in almost two months -- six earned runs and nine hits over four innings -- on his blistered index finger.

"The finger wasn't a problem," he said. "I wasn't locating. It is what it is. You're going to get beat. You can't be perfect all the time."

Their mutual nightmare began in the second. That was when the Braves lit up Penny for three runs, including a solo homer by Jeff Francoeur leading off and a two-out, two-run rally started by Hudson's single. It also was when the Dodgers came right back with two of their own, the last one scoring on Penny's double.

Penny gave one of the runs back in the third, giving up three consecutive hits to make it 4-2. But the Dodgers hung four on Hudson in their half, the last two scoring on a two-run single by Penny that made him 2 for 2 and gave him a career high-tying three RBIs.

And then, in the fourth, came two managerial decisions that might have decided the game.

First, the Dodgers' Grady Little stuck with Penny, even though he clearly had nothing, even though Eric Stults was warming in the bullpen, even though the Braves loaded the bases with one out on a hit and two walks. Penny responded by giving up a long sacrifice fly to Andruw Jones that missed by two feet being a grand slam and a score-tying, RBI single to Kelly Johnson. Nomar Garciaparra saved Penny with a nice scoop at third to rob Francoeur and finally end the inning.

Then, with the score still tied, Juan Pierre led off the bottom half with a triple up the gap, the Dodgers' 10th hit off Hudson. Unlike Little, Atlanta's Bobby Cox opted not to wait any longer, and Hudson was done. Three batters later, Peter Moylan (3-1) had gotten out of the inning with Pierre still at third. Moylan and four other Braves relievers combined to shut out the Dodgers, who remained a game behind division-leading San Diego in the National League West, the rest of the way.

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Dodgers pitcher Brad Penny drives in two runs with a third-inning single Thursday.

(2) The Dodgers' Jeff Kent slides past Braves catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia with a run in the third inning Thursday.

John McCoy/Staff Photographer