ISHII GETS NO HELP THIS TIME ROCKIES HOLD ON TO EARLY LEAD COLORADO 4, DODGERS 1.

Byline: Rich Hammond  Staff Writer

It's been a strange formula for success for Dodgers starting pitcher Kazuhisa Ishii, who starts poorly, finishes strongly and waits for the offense to bail him out somewhere along the way. It has worked for the better part of the last two months but not Monday night.

Ishii settled down after allowing three runs in the first two innings, but the offense couldn't come through against struggling Colorado starter Mike Hampton, and the Rockies held on for a 4-1 victory over the Dodgers before 34,641 at Dodger Stadium.

The Dodgers might have a bigger issue to worry about. Catcher Paul Lo Duca suffered what the team called a mild left-groin strain while running out a groundball in the first inning. Lo Duca stayed in the game but left after the fourth inning and is listed as day to day.

``Right now it doesn't appear that it's all that serious,'' manager Jim Tracy said. ``It seemed to be more of cramping between the stomach muscles and the groin area that was bothering him.''

Arizona did not play Monday, so the Dodgers remain in first place in the National League West, with a half-game lead over the Diamondbacks.

Even with Lo Duca, the Dodgers' offense lacked punch against Hampton (4-8), who had allowed at least four earned runs in each of his last four starts and had lasted more than five innings just once since May 22.

The Dodgers had made up for Ishii's inconsistency with great run support, averaging just more than six runs in each of his starts this season. Ishii (11-3) allowed three runs (one earned) on seven hits in seven innings, walked four and struck out six.

``That was no-hitter type stuff from the third inning on,'' Tracy said of Ishii, who allowed just two hits after the second inning.

Shawn Green's first-inning solo home run was just a blip for Hampton, who went seven innings and allowed five hits, walked one and struck out two. The Dodgers got just two baserunners past first after Green's homer and finished with five hits.

``He threw a great game,'' Green said. ``He's off to a slow start, but he's going to win his games. He settled in and threw a great game. We'd get somebody on and they'd make some pitches and get out of it.''

Ishii continued his trend of poor early-inning performances and lost for the second time in three starts. Going into Monday's game, in the first four innings of his 14 starts, Ishii had allowed 30 runs in 56 innings, then allowing just six runs in the 28 innings after the fourth.

It didn't appear Ishii would even reach the fourth inning Monday. Colorado jumped ahead with two unearned runs in the first. Brent Butler reached on an infield error and Todd Helton singled, then Todd Zeile and Juan Uribe followed with RBI singles.

``I think I had pretty good command,'' Ishii said through an interpreter, ``but they kept getting hit after hit and that kind of disrupted things.''

Mark Little walked to load the bases with two outs, but Ishii struck out Gary Bennett to end the inning. Green hit a home run, his 23rd of the season, in the first, but Hampton led off the second with a home run for a 3-1 Colorado lead. Ishii threw 55 pitches in the first two innings but only 56 in the next five.

``We're trying everything,'' Tracy said in reference to Ishii's slow starts. ``The next step would be to have him pitch a couple innings before he gets into the game. If we can find a half-field somewhere like we have in spring training, then we'll try that.''

The Dodgers' best chance to rally came in the ninth, when Chad Kreuter and Green walked with one out, but Eric Karros grounded into a double play to end the game.

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Photo:

(color) Dodgers catcher Paul Lo Duca meets with pitcher Kazuhisa Ishii in the first inning of Monday night's game.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer