DOWNED DODGERS GET A HOOT ROOKIE SWARM SIGN OF TEAM'S PRESENT, FUTURE SAN FRANCISCO 5, DODGERS 3.

Byline: Tony Jackson  Staff Writer

SAN FRANCISCO - Late Sunday afternoon, the door to the Dodgers clubhouse opened to reveal several young men dressed in Hooters waitress uniforms. It was the unmistakable sign of one of baseball's oldest rites of passage, a once-a-year hazing that usually involves rookies being forced to wear some type of women's clothing on a team charter flight, with their suits and ties not returned to them until they reach their hotel rooms in the next city.

But there were two aspects of this year's shenanigans that were particularly striking, and no, it wasn't the way these guys looked in skin-tight, white tank tops and tiny orange shorts.

First, the prank came in the wake of what should have been another crushing defeat, this time 5-3 to San Francisco in front of 42,659 at SBC Park, the Dodgers' third loss in a row to the hated Giants. The fact this level of fun could come immediately after this level of agony made it clear the Dodgers finally have resigned themselves to the inevitability of playing out the string.

Second, those Hooters uniforms were just so plentiful. There were 10 of them, to be exact - one for every rookie on the team, except Mike Edwards, who was hazed during his brief callup with Oakland last year, and Edwin Jackson, still technically a rookie despite getting his foray into cross dressing out of the way two years ago.

Thanks to a slew of injuries that caused five regular position players, a semi-regular, a key starting pitcher and a legendary closer all to miss significant time this season, the Dodgers have more rookies on their current roster than any defending division title winner should ever be saddled with. That, more than anything, explains why the Dodgers manager Jim Tracy had to field questions after the game about the fact that his first losing season as a major- league manager had just become a mathematical certainty.

And why Tracy, who one suspects could find positives in owning airline stock, was able to find positives in this, too.

``You're hopeful that you don't have to endure too many of these,'' Tracy said. ``But regardless of what our record is, the young kids on this club are making progress. So you just keep pushing forward. We have 29 players right now, and 13 of those have rookie status next to their names. If you look at the games we have played, (75) of those have been decided by two runs or less. That's another positive, how young people evolve in an environment like this versus trying to evaluate them in games that are lopsided.

``You don't get a good barometer in those games. But you get a good barometer of how these kids will handle certain situations when you have close ballgames.''

Some of these players won't be heard from again. Edwards, 28, who singled in the game-tying run in the sixth, is a career minor-leaguer with his fourth organization in five years. Brian Myrow, who followed with what should have been a go-ahead single only to see Edwards get thrown out at home, is making his major-league debut at age 29.

But most of the kids are bona fide prospects. And while this year's growing pains have been laughable at times and no laughing matter at others, everyone will benefit in seasons to come.

``They're gaining the exposure of big-league experience,'' Dodgers veteran Jeff Kent said. ``It's going to make us that much better.''

For now, though, the third-place Dodgers (67-82) aren't very good at all, and they still are in the race in the National League West only in the technical sense. They fell 7 1/2 games behind division-leading San Diego, reducing the magic number for the Dodgers' elimination to seven and for the Padres clinching the division to nine.

Tony Jackson,[phone]

tony.jackson(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

photo, 3 boxes

Photo:

(color) The Dodgers' Jayson Werth sits dejected in the dugout during the ninth inning against the Giants.

George Nikitin/Associated Press

Box:

(1) GAME RECAP

(2) HOW THE RUNS SCORED

(3) ALMANAC