L.A. CAUGHT IN WEBB ARIZONA PITCHER STYMIES DODGERS ARIZONA 6, DODGERS 2.

Byline: TONY JACKSON 

Staff Writer

PHOENIX -- In an effort to pitch the Arizona Diamondbacks one step closer to what is beginning to look like an inevitable division title and stake whatever claim he still can to a Cy Young Award that someone else already seems to have already locked up, Brandon Webb had an all-too-willing accomplice on Saturday night.

Several of them, in fact, and every one was dressed in a Dodgers uniform.

Oh, the Dodgers managed to make enough noise against an obviously tiring Webb in the seventh inning to knock him out of the game. But that was pretty much the only sign of life they would show before succumbing 6-2 to the Diamondbacks before 47,673 at Chase Field, leaving the Dodgers with their season-worst seventh consecutive defeat and officially eliminating them from the National League West race.

Before Tony Abreu's two-run double chased Webb, the Arizona right-hander struck out six and recorded 10 groundball outs, all while the Dodgers were going 2 for 8 with runners in scoring position, and those two hits were Abreu's double and a slow roller by Matt Kemp in the sixth inning that originally was ruled an error.

In a year in which San Diego's Jake Peavy is the runaway N.L. leader in all three major pitching categories, Webb's chance of winning his second Cy Young in a row lies somewhere between slim and non-existent. But it still lies somewhere north of the Dodgers' chance of making the playoffs.

If anyone is interested -- and these sleepwalking Dodgers haven't seemed at all interested since dropping the nightcap of last Tuesday's doubleheader at Colorado -- the Dodgers could still get in. That is, if they win every one of their seven remaining games. And if San Diego loses every one of the eight games it has left. And Arizona manhandles the sizzling Rockies next weekend.

And Philadelphia, which has won nine of its past 11, suddenly cools off. And Atlanta, which has won seven of nine, also cools off. And Milwaukee continues to struggle for a few more days, then suddenly catches fire just in time to sweep its season-ending, four-game series with the Padres.

And really, after watching this latest debacle, a game in which David Wells threw exactly one pitch in the bottom of the first inning before the Diamondbacks had put themselves in front for good on Chris Young's ninth leadoff home run of the year, why wouldn't you believe all of those things could happen?

Dodgers manager Grady Little had held a team meeting after Friday night's pounding, a closed-door session that last half an hour and is believed to have touched on both the lack of drive the club seems to have with nothing left to play for and the clubhouse disharmony that was revealed in the postgame comments of Jeff Kent one day last week.

But when the Dodgers (79-76) returned to the field, nothing really had changed. And although that could be blamed largely on Webb, who now is 9-3 lifetime against the Dodgers with a 2.77 ERA, the Dodgers appeared hopelessly overmatched from the start. They now trail the Diamondbacks by nine games in the N.L. West, where a fourth-place finish is starting to look like a foregone conclusion.

Wells (8-9) never really settled in, and he was gone after walking back- to-back batters with two outs in the fourth. He gave up Young's homer, another run and three more hits in the first and a one-out triple to Stephen Drew that led to another run in the second. He then gave up a home run to Mark Reynolds with two outs in the third. And after Eric Byrnes singled with one out in the fifth and stole both second and third, Conor Jackson brought Byrnes home with a sacrifice fly, giving the Diamondbacks a 5-0 lead.

And on an evening when Webb (17-10) looked every bit the part of a Cy Young candidate in a year when there probably isn't a Cy Young left for him to win, that was too big a lead for the cruise-controlled Dodgers to overcome.

As good as Webb was, the Arizona bullpen was even better. Four relievers, including another Cy Young candidate in closer Jose Valverde, held the Dodgers hitless, combining to retire nine of the final 10 batters after Abreu's triple. And now, the only thing left between the Dodgers and a winless seven-game road trip is this afternoon's series finale.

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DODGERS

TODAY

Dodgers (Billingsley 11-5) at Arizona (Gonzalez 8-2), 1:40p.m., Chase Field.

TV: Prime Ticket.

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Photo:

Dodgers catcher Mike Lieberthal, bottom, holds on to the ball as Arizona's Mark Reynolds collides with him.

Paul Connors/Associated Press