HIDEO NO-NO : NOMO NO-HITS ROCKIES AT COORS.

Byline: Tim Brown Daily News Staff Writer

In perhaps the best hitters' park baseball has ever known, Dodgers right-hander Hideo Nomo no-hit the Colorado Rockies Tuesday night at Coors Field.

It is the first no-hitter thrown at the ballpark, where the Rockies previously batted .348, the 10th in Los Angeles Dodgers history and the 20th in franchise history.

The Dodgers defeated the Rockies 9-0 in a game delayed two hours by rain, and extended their lead over the San Diego Padres to 1-1/2 games in the National League West.

In his second season since the Dodgers signed him out of the Japanese Pacific League, Nomo, who pitched from the stretch after the second inning, walked four batters and struck out eight.

He joins a Los Angeles no-hit fraternity that begins with Sandy Koufax, who pitched four in the 1960s, and runs through Ramon Martinez, who pitched the last, on July 14, 1995 against the Florida Marlins.

With his typical fastball-forkball repertoire, Nomo allowed those four baserunners, two of which reached scoring position. He retired the final 11 Rockies hitters, and 16 of the final 17.

Nomo's final pitch - to Ellis Burks - was a forkball that Burks swung through. It ended what many called among the finest pitching performances ever, though not by Nomo, whose cool, composed demeanor did not change until catcher Mike Piazza reached the mound. He smiled and laughed.

``I don't know if you believe it or not,'' Nomo said through his interpreter, ``but I'm glad we picked up the win at this time, rather than that I accomplished the no-hitter.''

The win was the Dodgers' eighth in nine games. They have won 20 of 25.

Nomo threw 110 pitches, 66 for strikes, and pitched to three batters over the minimum.

``It's the most incredible thing I've ever seen in baseball,'' Dodgers reliever Mark Guthrie said. ``You'll never see it again. You can sit there and say all the superlatives, but people don't understand what a feat that was.''

On a cool, damp night, Nomo discarded his twisting windup because of the condition of the mound, which was muddy beneath a slight drizzle that fell through the game. Then he tore through the Rockies' lineup, in this ballpark considered baseball's best.

``A no-hitter at Coors Field?,'' Dodgers pitching coach Dave Wallace said with bemusement. ``A gem like that? I think we saw history. I really do. I say it's got to be one of the best pitching performances.

``I'm sure he's happy with the way he pitched. But I know Hideo Nomo, and he's happy we won this ballgame, down the stretch.''

Nomo (16-10) has won four consecutive decisions and six of his last seven, despite the preseason theory that his fastball-forkball repertoire would not make it through another big-league season. He pitched the no-hitter with just those two pitches, because, he said with a grin, ``There was no situation where I should throw the curveball, that's why.''

Wallace, as he does with most of his pitchers at Coors Field, called some of Nomo's pitches to Piazza. It became the 118th National League no-hitter, and baseball's 219th.

``He's gotten nothing but better,'' Dodgers manager Bill Russell said. ``He just seems to meet the challenge, whenever we need a big game. You just can't find the words how much it means, to us, but what a great (individual) performance.''

Considering the conditions and the ballpark, Russell said, especially the ballpark, ``this tops all odds. It beats everything. You'd have to put it right there. The perfect game in the World Series. This here, you have to rank it with the top ones.''

The Rockies were no-hit on May 11 by Marlins pitcher Al Leiter. That game was in Miami. The Rockies were one-hit by Pat Rapp, also of the Marlins, at Coors Field on Sept. 17, 1995, a year to the day before Nomo's no-no.

Nomo received a standing ovation when he came to bat in the ninth inning, by what was left of an announced crowd of 48,048.

The no-hitter exacted revenge for Nomo's previous outing, on June 30, at Coors Field. In five innings he allowed nine hits and nine runs, five earned.

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Photo: (color) Hideo Nomo of the Dodgers fires a pitch agai nst the Rockies in the first inning.

Associated Press