HOBBLING OUT OF THE GATE.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

Ned Colletti didn't have to look far to see that hope is not necessarily lost, even if there was something ominous in a second member of the general manager's grizzled lineup going down with an injury hours before the Dodgers' season opener Monday.

Colletti was asked to search his memory for the best recent example of a baseball team overcoming physical frailty with capable back-ups.

``Probably the Atlanta Braves last year,'' Colletti said in the third-base dugout, nodding toward the first-base dugout.

Oh, right, the Braves - the club that held on to beat the undermanned Dodgers 11-10 on a damp afternoon at Dodger Stadium.

The locals arrived at the park knowing they'd be playing without center fielder Kenny Lofton. They soon found out they'd be playing without first baseman Nomar Garciaparra. Considering that the Dodgers' intended starting lineup has a combined career total of 47 disabled-list appearances, it doesn't take an American Medical Association study to suggest that Lofton's calf injury (which happened Thursday) and Garciaparra's rib-muscle injury (Sunday) mark the start of a season-long trend.

Time to put on a brave face.

By emulating the Braves.

You say a team doesn't just replace missing veterans and roll merrily along?

``We did,'' said John Schuerholz, the Braves' great general manager.

In 2005, the Braves lost three members of their Opening Day lineup to the disabled list (Chipper Jones, Brian Jordan and Johnny Estrada) at one time or another and got rid of a fourth (Raul Mondesi) in May. Yeah, the 964-time National League East champions were finally falling apart.

Enter Jeff Francoeur, Ryan Langerhans, Wilson Betemit, Kelly Johnson, Brian McCann and the rest of the 18 rookies on that Braves team. Up from the farm, to the rescue.

By October, there was another division winner in Atlanta. Though, of course, there later was another playoff disappointment.

``They weren't scheduled to come up,'' Braves manager Bobby Cox said in that first-base dugout, referring to the youngsters, of whom Francoeur, Langerhans and McCann were in 2006's Opening Day lineup. ``But we didn't think we were going to hurt anybody (by rushing them). We thought they could play.

``It's a tribute to your nuts-and-bolts guys - our scouts, coaches, minor-league staff. It's rewarding.''

Monday, the Braves fielded eight position players who are products of their own farm system.

``We've long positioned ourselves as an organization that relies on (home-grown talent),'' Schuerholz said. ``It's not just something that's theoretical. It actually works for us.''

Once upon a time, that described the Dodgers. It was 25 Opening Days ago that Jerry Reuss was hurt and missed his start, and rookie Fernando Valenzuela stepped in and shut out Houston.

Soon, that might describe the Dodgers again. Their resurgent farm system is stocked with some of baseball's flashiest prospects, names like Chad Billingsley, Andy LaRoche and Joel Guzman.

When Colletti signed Garciaparra, Lofton, Bill Mueller, Brett Tomko and other veterans to short contracts, he was laying the transition road to a future in which those kids are L.A. stars. It's probably too much to ask that a bunch of twentysomethings will bail out a banged-up roster this soon.

Then again, if Garciaparra has to go on the disabled list, the man the Dodgers are expected to call up from Las Vegas is 21-year-old first baseman James Loney. Loney could make his big-league debut as early as tonight.

``If there's talent there,'' Schuerholz said, ``sometimes the best thing you can offer them is on-the-job experience (and) responsibility. Sometimes necessity really is the mother of invention. It was for us last year.''

Monday, the new-hued Dodger Stadium opened to about 50,000 of the 56,000 ticket-holders - blame a pessimistic weather forecast for the no-shows - as Colletti and manager Grady Little faced their first creativity test. Garciaparra's and Lofton's fill-ins had a decidedly mixed day.

Jose Cruz Jr., taking Lofton's No. 2 slot in the order while playing left field, had a career-high four hits and scored three times, combining with leadoff man Rafael Furcal to get on base nine times. Jason Repko, playing center for Lofton, had two hits and an RBI double but just missed gloving Edgar Renteria's two-run double on the warning track that made it 10-5 in the sixth. Olmedo Saenz, playing first and batting fifth for Garciaparra, had a two-run single up the middle to make it 11-7 in the eighth, but only after he'd stranded seven runners with three strikeouts and a groundout.

Saenz, 35, who admitted he struggled emotionally on the first season-opener since the death of his mother, said he doesn't expect to be the everyday first baseman while Garciaparra is down.

``Hopefully we don't get to that point,'' he said. ``We'll be a better team with (Garciaparra) healthy.''

It wasn't Garciaparra's and Lofton's injuries that beat the Dodgers. Derek Lowe gave up a three-run homer to Adam LaRoche (Andy's brother) in the first and another to Andruw Jones in the fifth, and the Dodgers couldn't quite make up the 8-1 deficit.

But Garciaparra's injury, on top of Lofton's, cast a here-we-go-again pall over the proceedings. The Dodgers planned for this to be the start of recovery from last year's injury-ruined season.

Before things get much worse, Dodgers fans have to pray that one of two things happens soon, the old guys in the majors getting healthy or that the young guys in the minors getting ready.