L.A. IS CAUGHT IN THE WEBB DODGERS GIVE UP 17 HITS IN DEFEAT ARIZONA 9, DODGERS 1.

Byline: BILLY WITZ

Staff Writer

Through a quirk of scheduling, the Dodgers faced Arizona pitcher Brandon Webb only once last season.

They should only be so lucky this year.

Webb, the National League's reigning Cy Young Award winner, gave the Dodgers a taste Monday night of what they had been missing, tossing seveninnings of four-hit ball in a 9-1 victory in front of 53,126 at Dodger Stadium.

It was a night eventually made easy thanks to the Diamondbacks backing him with a season-high 17 hits, including a pair of home runs by leadoff man Chris Young.

The loss dropped the Dodgers a half-game behind the Diamondbacks, the first time since April 15 they haven't held at least a share of first place, and also dropped them below .500 at home.

Webb, who has been baseball's most adept pitcher at inducing ground balls over the past four seasons, was on top of his game.

Sixteen of the Dodgers' 21 outs against Webb were either strikeouts or groundouts. Other than Andre Ethier -- who doubled and singled, driving in the Dodgers' lone run in the seventh -- few made solid contact against Webb's dipping fastball and an occasional breaking ball that bit at the corners of the strike zone.

"He had his sinker working, got a lot of groundballs, and we didn't get a lot of good swings," said Dodgers left fielder Luis Gonzalez, who played behind Webb for three years in Arizona. "When he gets a lead, he takes over from there. There's a reason he was a Cy Young winner."

Webb allowed just two hits through six innings, and his night was so effortless he left after just 90 pitches with two strikeouts.

It looked much like the time the Dodgers faced him last season, a 5-2 victory in which he scattered seven hits over eight innings. Which also looked pretty much like the other times the right-hander has pitched at Dodger Stadium, where the home team had batted .191 against him.

"He's almost like a Maddux-type," Dodgers center fielder Juan Pierre said. "Once he got the lead, he was just throwing it up there just so you could hit groundballs. He doesn't try to strike you out."

The Dodgers have been impatient against plenty of pitchers this season, but they didn't consider that a detriment against Webb (2-1).

"He attacks. He tries to get that first-pitch strike," Gonzalez said. "If he has that sinker ball working, you don't want to be with two strikes against him, then you're more defensive than going up there swinging the bat and being an aggressive hitter."

If the Dodgers knew what they were in for, they were simply hoping that Randy Wolf might be able to keep them close. After Sunday's 17-inning victory over San Diego in which all sixmembers of the bullpen pitched, including five of them for more than one inning, manager Grady Little said he'd give Wolf a longer leash than usual, hoping he could work deep into the game and save the bullpen.

But the left-hander, who had pitched six innings in each of his previous fivestarts, wasn't quite up to the task.

Young hit the second pitch of the game over the 375-foot sign in right- center field -- he later homered to left off reliever Rudy Seanez -- and Wolf struggled all evening to find a groove.

"I was fighting myself all game," Wolf said. "I couldn't throw a curveball for a strike to save my life. I wasn't very good even when they weren't scoring runs. There weren't any 1-2-3 innings.

"Overall, it was a bad game."

Wolf left with two outs in the sixth, trailing 5-0 after Chad Tracy's two-out double -- the third run he allowed with two outs. Wolf had escaped with the bases loaded in the fourth when Stephen Drew flied out to the warning track in straightaway center.

The Diamondbacks padded their lead in the fifth when Wolf tipped off a 1-0 curveball to Eric Byrnes by slowing down his arm speed noticeably.

Byrnes jumped on the pitch, ripping it past diving third baseman Wilson Betemit and just inside the line.

Orlando Hudson, who had reached on his second hit of the night, flew around from first and scored easily when Gonzalez had trouble picking the ball up out of the left-field corner.

Wolf appeared able to escape further damage by retiring the next two hitters, but his inability to finish hitters off proved costly. He walked Carlos Quentin on a 3-2 pitch and Chris Snyder singled to center on a 2-2 pitch, scoring Byrnes. Webb then hit a flare into right-center field that Juan Pierre dove for, but the ball squirted out of his glove allowing Quentin to make it 4-0.

After Seanez, Little turned to starter Brett Tomko, who threw a mostly fruitless eighth.

"A lot of what we saw out there tonight was residue from last night," Little said.

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Dodgers right fielder Andre Ethier runs out of room chasing a Chris Young homer.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer

(2) Dodgers center fielder Juan Pierre dives but can't catch a blooper by the Diamondbacks' Brandon Webb in the sixth inning.

Keith Birmingham/Staff Photographer