DODGERS TRAIL BY ONE.

Byline: Marc J. Spears Daily News Staff Writer

At what length does the Dodgers' bullpen have to go prove itself?

It was just Sunday that the bullpen pitched five scoreless innings during the Dodgers' one-run, 12-inning victory over the Chicago Cubs. The successful bullpen stint pushed its scoreless streak to a season-high 29 innings through eight games.

And on Monday night, the pen got tested again against the Milwaukee Brewers. This time it threw 4 1/3 scoreless innings going into the 13th frame.

But Milwaukee led 3-2 going into the bottom 13th in front of a crowd of 32,910 that were mostly gone from Dodger Stadium at that point.

By the beginning of the 13th the Dodgers bullpen had only allowed four runs in 67 innings on the season.

During the first eight innings, the Dodgers were held scoreless, but not without several scoring opportunities.

Eric Young was stranded at third in the first and Raul Mondesi suffered the same fate in third. Also, the Dodgers left two men on base in the fourth and eighth innings and a man was stranded at second base in the fifth.

In light of that, the chances of a comeback might have seemed bleak for the Dodgers, who entered the bottom of the ninth inning down 2-0.

Mondesi, however, refused to quit and decided to test the odds. He began the Dodgers' rally by leading off with a first-pitch home run off Brewers reliever Doug Jones to cut the Dodgers' deficit to 2-1. The Dodgers then kept the game alive when Young followed with a ground-rule double and eventually tied it, Young moving up on a sacrifice and scoring on a one-out RBI single by Jose Vizcaino.

The game marked a homecoming for Milwaukee's Geoff Jenkins, the former USC star. His major-league career is just in its infancy - 4 days old. But the 23-year-old Jenkins has already displayed the talent that helped him lead the Trojans to the College World Series title game in 1995 and earned him All-American status.

The Brewers rookie left fielder was 2 for 4 with a homer in his major-league debut Friday at San Francisco. He was the first Brewers second player this year (Travis Lee) and in Milwaukee baseball history (Chuck Tanner, 1955) to hit a home run in his first game.

Jenkins also hit a solo home run in his first-ever at-bat against Dodgers starter Chan Ho Park in the second inning to give the Brewers a 1-0 lead.

Milwaukee went up 2-0 in the sixth after Fernando Vina led off with a triple off Park and scored on a groundout.

In working 7-2/3 innings, Park struck out five and allowed two runs, six hits and a walk.

The arrival of the Brewers marked the first time that a team from Milwaukee played in Dodger Stadium in 33 years. In the last encounter, Dodgers pitcher Bob Miller earned the win in a 3-0 victory over the Braves.

The possibility of a return of a Milwaukee-based team to Dodger Stadium became a reality on Nov. 6 when the Brewers became the first team in modern-day baseball to switch leagues as part of Phase I of Major League Baseball's realignment.

``It is very strange to see a Milwaukee team,'' said former Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda, who played in Los Angeles from 1954-55. ``I'm glad they are back (in the NL). They (Milwaukee Braves) were once a very powerful organization. (The NL) is exactly where Milwaukee belongs.''