ONE IS DODGERS' LONELIEST NUMBER TEN HITS PRODUCE A SINGLE RUN AGAINST CARDS ST. LOUIS 5, DODGERS 1.

Byline: Tony Jackson  Staff Writer

ST. LOUIS - It's one thing to be completely shut down by a dominating pitcher, which is what happened to the Dodgers on Friday night against St. Louis' Matt Morris.

It's quite another when a team reaches double digits in hits and collectively shoots itself in the foot, which is what happened to the Dodgers on Saturday night against the Cardinals' Jason Marquis and three relievers.

The result this time was a galling 5-1 defeat to the Cardinals in front of a sellout crowd of 45,692 at Busch Stadium, after which there wasn't nearly as much shrugging of the shoulders and tipping of the caps as there had been the previous evening.

Yes, Marquis (14-4) did a fine job, striking out nine in seven shutout innings. But the Dodgers also tagged him for eight hits - all of which were negated by stranding six baserunners and grounding into two double plays, both of which came from two spots in the lineup that are fast becoming black holes.

So say all you want about the fact the Dodgers already have scored more runs than last year's punchless bunch did the entire season. Say all you want about the pitching thrown at them in the first two games of this series by the Cardinals, who behind their murderous lineup are hiding the best team ERA in the majors.

Say all you want about all of that, but don't overlook the obvious: The Dodgers have big problems offensively. And never has that fact been more exposed than the past two nights, their first two meetings of the season with the team that owns baseball's best record and is looking more and more like an inevitable first-round playoff opponent.

And that is assuming the Dodgers (78-57) even get there. Their lead over second-place San Francisco slipped to 4 1/2 games.

``Last night, we faced a guy who was maybe as good as anyone I have seen all year,'' Dodgers hitting coach Tim Wallach said. ``Tonight, we hit a ton of balls hard and got a lot of hits, but we just couldn't come up with any with guys on base. It's not from a lack of effort.''

But it is producing an alarming lack of results.

Adrian Beltre drove in the Dodgers' only run - his 100th of the season - with a two-out double off the wall in right-center field in the eighth. It snapped a streak of 16 consecutive scoreless innings for the Dodgers. They now have scored one run in their past 18 innings and struck out 21 times in their past two games.

Meanwhile, they continue to get absolutely no production from two of their trading-deadline acquisitions. Hee-Seop Choi beat out an infield single in the fifth but otherwise went 1 for 4 with two strikeouts and a double-play grounder. Brent Mayne went 0 for 2, grounding into a double play to end the fifth after consecutive hits by Choi and Alex Cora.

Choi is hitting .167 since joining the Dodgers. Mayne is hitting .145, a fact that is made even more glaring by fellow catcher David Ross' season- long average of .175.

Manager Jim Tracy continues to say it's unfair to Mayne and Ross to expect either of them to hit like former catcher Paul Lo Duca, who was shipped to Florida in the Choi-Brad Penny deal. What Tracy won't say - and doesn't have to - is that the Dodgers' suddenly porous lineup misses the productive Lo Duca to an even greater degree than anyone predicted.

Kazuhisa Ishii (13-7) combined with three relievers to hold the Cardinals to two hits. But six walks, including four by Ishii, resulted in three St. Louis runs.

``We have to bounce back (today),'' Tracy said. ``Number one, you don't want to be swept. Number two, we're a game away from having a winning road trip after what has been a grueling two-week (13-game) road trip.''

There is, of course, another reason the Dodgers desperately need to salvage today's series and trip finale. They need to prove, partly to the world and partly to themselves, that they belong on the same field with the mighty Cardinals, who would still have an eight-game lead in the standings even if all 30 major-league clubs suddenly were playing in the same division.

``We know we can play with these guys,'' said Steve Finley, the Dodgers' gifted center fielder whose rare muff in the sixth inning allowed the final two Cardinals runs to score.

``I think some of our guys are a little tired at the end of a tough road trip. But we won't make excuses.''

Tony Jackson,[phone]

tony.jackson(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

Dodgers center fielder Steve Finley misplays a ball hit by Reggie Sanders in the sixth inning, allowing the Cardinals to score their last two runs in their 5-1 victory.

Tom Gannam/Associated Press

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