FOR OPENERS, LOWE SCORCHED BY BRAVES.

Byline: Vincent Bonsignore Staff Writer

Derek Lowe stopped at his locker Monday after the Dodgers' 11-10 Opening Day loss to Atlanta, looked at the three reporters standing in front of him and shook his head sheepishly.

``You mind if we wait until everyone else gets here?'' Lowe said, alluding to the 20 or so other reporters who were making their way to his corner of the Dodgers' clubhouse.

Lowe then smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

``I only have so many one liners, ya know?''

Lowe was trying to spin a little humor on his otherwise dreary day. He waited all spring for Monday's season opener, honored and anxious at the chance to get the Dodgers started after last year's 91-loss season.

His dream day quickly turned ghoulish, done in by a pair of four-run innings in the first and the fifth and getting chased with the Dodgers trailing 8-1. The only solace he took was the Dodgers' near miraculous comeback, battling all the way to their final at-bat before falling to the Braves on a wet, gray afternoon at Chavez Ravine.

Other than the rally, it's a day Lowe would like to forget as soon as possible.

``I really didn't have much (today),'' said Lowe, who gave up nine hits and seven earned runs. ``It was a struggle from the first batter all the way to the last.''

Lowe refused to use a recent head cold as an excuse for his performance, instead blaming a lack of command on his pitches.

``I really didn't have anything going for me,'' Lowe said. ``I tried to battle as best I could, but it was a definite struggle out there.''

That was obvious within the first four batters, as Marcus Giles singled, Chipper Jones reached base on a Jeff Kent fielding error and Andruw Jones sliced a run-scoring single. The big blow came when Lowe left a fastball out over the plate, and Adam LaRoche smashed it for a 3-run home run to make it 4-0.

``That pitch was right down the middle,'' said Lowe, who hadn't given up four runs in a first inning since giving up five to the Yankees in 2004 as a member of the Red Sox.

Lowe got through the next three innings without giving up any runs thanks to a pair of double plays, but in the fifth he got in trouble again by surrendering a lead-off single to Braves' pitcher Tim Hudson and a pair of singles by Edgar Renteria and Chipper Jones to make it 5-1.

Then, with two runners on, Lowe tried to fool Andruw Jones with a sinker inside, but Jones got under it to crush a three-run home run halfway up the left-field pavilion to make it 8-1.

``I've got to give Andruw a lot of credit because he read the situation perfectly and knew we were trying to get a ground ball inside right there.'' Lowe said. ``He's an extremely talented hitter and he hit a big home run.''

Dodgers' catcher Sandy Alomar Jr., who tried to coax a sluggish Lowe through the early innings, said things looked a lot worse than they really were.

``Derek really wasn't that bad; he just missed on a couple of key pitches,'' Alomar said. ``The ball that LaRoche hit was up and in the middle of the plate. We tried a couple of changeups first and that didn't work, so we tried to come inside, but he left it out there and LaRoche took advantage of it.''

But even Alomar said there aren't too many players who can do anything with the pitch Lowe threw to Jones in the fifth inning.

Unfortunately for Lowe, Jones is one of them. That's why he hit 51 home runs last year and that's why he crushed the three-run home run Monday.

``You have to give (Jones) all the credit on that one,'' Alomar said. That was a good piece of hitting by a great hitter.''

Vincent Bonsignore, [phone]

vincent.bonsignore(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

Derek Lowe looks back as Atlanta's Andruw Jones hits a three-run homer in the fifth inning Monday.

Will Lester/Staff Photographer