NOMO IS THE TEAM'S ONLY HOPE.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

SAN DIEGO - I might have dozed off Friday afternoon while Jim Tracy was discussing the itinerary for Hideo Nomo in the final week of the regular season, so I'll have to reconstruct what the Dodgers manager said from a fuzzy microtape, smudged notes and rank hearsay.

Tracy said the ace's schedule would depend on how Andy Ashby pitched here Friday, how Nomo pitches here tonight, how their right arms feel afterward, whether the wind is blowing in from the north, which direction the stock market goes and the results of a vote by the United Nations Security Council.

Or something like that.

``I think you have to have some sensibility about it,'' Tracy said, indicating it's a complicated matter. ``It's a day-to-day thing at this point. Nothing is out of the realm of possibility.''

I don't think it should be all that tough to figure out what to do with Nomo as the Dodgers make their last desperate bid to catch the San Francisco Giants in the National League wild-card race.

Give that man the ball.

Nomo pitches tonight against the San Diego Padres, and this means there's a chance of a victory for the Dodgers, who in the past four weeks are 5-0 when he's the starter and 5-13 when it's anybody else.

Give that man the ball.

Nomo's usual, once-every-five-days schedule would send him back out to the mound Thursday to face the Colorado Rockies in Los Angeles, and that would be his last appearance of the season unless the Dodgers were able to force a tie-breaking playoff game in San Francisco a week from Monday.

But coming back a day early, to pitch Wednesday against Colorado, would allow Nomo to start again on the season's final Sunday against San Diego in Los Angeles.

Give that man the ball!

As often as humanly possible.

If there's any Dodgers pitcher who can handle three starts in nine days, it's Nomo.

As Dodgers first baseman Eric Karros said recently, in a quote that was cleaned up by mlb.com to read exactly like this: ``He's got the biggest (guts) of any pitcher I've ever been around.''

You try to picture how that quote might have been translated for readers back home in Japan - ``Karros: Nomo My Fattest Teammate.''

More to the point: If there's any Dodgers pitcher you'd want to start three times in nine days, it's also Nomo.

This wouldn't be like Gene Mauch's Philadelphia Phillies rolling out their two reliable starters, Jim Bunning and Chris Short, virtually every other day in the final two weeks of 1964, to disastrous effect. The Dodgers don't have another starter as reliable as Nomo these days.

Nomo has won six decisions in a row and 13 of his past 14. The Dodgers have won 20 of the past 24 games he has pitched.

Yes, he throws a lot of pitches, but unless he trips the 200 mark tonight and his knuckles are scraping the ground afterward, I say get him out to the mound Wednesday and next Sunday even if you have to deliver him in a wheelbarrow.

After Ashby's terrible 8-4 loss to the Padres in the series opener at Qualcomm Stadium dropped the Dodgers two games behind the victorious Giants, I figure Los Angeles needs to plan on six wins in its last eight to have a playoff hope.

The way he's going, Nomo can give Los Angeles half of those wins all by himself.

Nomo's 15-6 record and 3.32 ERA give only a hint of how good he's been this year, working hitters up and down with his fastball and split-finger pitch. He's having a you-had-to- be-there kind of season.

His 24 ``quality starts'' - six innings plus, three earned runs or less - are more than anybody in the league except Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling.

``That doesn't surprise me,'' said Jeff Reboulet, the Dodgers' infielder. ``He's one of those guys you've got to watch on a daily basis to appreciate. It's the spectacular things that people notice. But what matters is being consistent. Playing the game right. He pitches the game right.

``He eats up innings and keeps you in the game. That's how pitchers help you. ... He's an unsung guy.''

Until his fellow starters' failings and injuries allowed him to stand out, Nomo got too little attention around the country.

But he got all the credit he needed from his teammates.

``He takes the ball every fifth day and he's going to leave everything out there,'' Karros said Friday. ``There's a different feeling playing when he's on the mound. You feel like good things are going to happen.''

For good things to keep happening in October, the Dodgers need Nomo to take the ball three more times in September.

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Photo:

The Dodgers' Hideo Nomo has been the team's most consistent pitcher and might be L.A.'s only hope to make the playoffs.

David Sprague/Staff Photographer