LATE HOMERS DOOM DODGERS PENNY HAS NOTHING TO SHOW FOR STRONG START PHILA. 8, DODGERS 4.

Byline: Rich Hammond  Staff Writer

Every team in a longshot situation needs a realistic path to success, so Dodgers manager Jim Tracy took a look at the calendar Tuesday and offered a plausible way the Dodgers could make the playoffs.

``You shave off one game a week and you win,'' Tracy said, referring to the fact that the Dodgers entered Tuesday trailing San Diego in the National League West by six games with seven-plus weeks to play.

From that perspective, the Dodgers' deficit seems far less imposing, even though Tracy acknowledged that such a comeback would require a number of the team's top hitters to ``collectively catch fire for a period of time.''

Some steady pitching late in games wouldn't hurt either.

The Dodger bullpen continued its recent struggles with a catastrophic failure Tuesday as Philadelphia scored five runs in the eighth for an 8-4 victory over the Dodgers in front of 44,556 at Dodger Stadium.

Dodger starter Brad Penny completed the seventh inning with a 2-1 lead and 108 pitches thrown, but manager Jim Tracy turned to the bullpen and rookie Steve Schmoll, and nothing good followed.

With one out and runners on first and second, Schmoll (2-1) got a huge out when he struck out Bobby Abreu looking, but Pat Burrell followed with a towering three-run home run into the left-field seats.

``I just think back to when I was in my second or third year; it's tough,'' said Penny, who consoled Schmoll after he was removed from the game.

``You just take the positives out of it and do the best you can.

``(Schmoll) is out there competing and trying. He's a good kid and he will be pitching in this league for a long time.''

Ryan Howard followed with another homer, a 441-foot shot, for a three-run Phillies lead, and Mike Lieberthal (Westlake High) doubled off Duaner Sanchez to extend the Phillies' lead to 6-2.

A two-run, pinch-hit home run by Ricky Ledee, who was unable to start because of a sore hamstring, in the eighth tightened the score, but the Dodgers failed to score again.

Schmoll had allowed a total of three earned runs in his last 11 1/3 innings, so Tracy turned to him instead of setup men Sanchez or Giovanni Carrara, both of whom struggled on the just-completed road trip.

``When you're dealing with youth, like we have in that bullpen,that's the risk you run,'' Tracy said.

Add to that the recent woes of closer Yhency Brazoban and the Dodgers' bullpen, once an unquestioned strength, is now a huge question mark. And how about those hitters Tracy said must catch fire?

The table-setters did their job, as leadoff man Cesar Izturis and No. 2 hitter Oscar Robles combined for two hits and four walks, but cleanup hitter Jeff Kent struck out four times and stranded six runners, and the next two hitters in the order, Olmedo Saenz and Jose Valentin, went hitless in seven combined at-bats.

Penny, who is 0-2 in his last six starts, allowed one run on six hits, walked one and struck out four.

It also wasn't a good night for Dodger catcher Dioner Navarro, as the Phillies were successful in all three of their stolen-base attempts and scored a run in the ninth inning on a passed ball.

The Dodgers' home record fell to 26-28, a crucial statistic since they are 10 games under .500 on the road and in need of a spark since the Padres, who won Tuesday to take a seven-game lead in the division, seem to have rebounded from a tough recent stretch.

Shut down for four innings by Robinson Tejada, Philadelphia's rookie starter, the Dodgers had somewhat of a breakthrough in the fifth. Izturis led off with a walk. The Dodgers put on a hit and run and Robles hit a ball that bounced just in front of the plate and poked it into left field.

Milton Bradley then doubled home Izturis on a ground ball that stayed just inside third base and Saenz later scored Robles from third on an infield groundout for a 2-0 Dodgers lead.

Tejada left after the fifth, having allowed just five hits on 101 pitches, but Penny went strong through the seventh inning, with a run in the sixth being the only mark against him.

Rich Hammond, [phone]

rich.hammond(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

photo, 4 boxes

Photo:

Milton Bradley watches as he runs on a fifth-inning double that scored Dodgers teammate Cesar Izturis in Tuesday's game against the Phillies.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer

Box:

(1) DODGERS vs. PHILADELPHIA

- Rich Hammond

(2) GAME RECAP

(3) HOW THE RUNS SCORED

(4) ALMANAC