OUT OF THEIR REACH? DODGERS ADMIT CHANCES ARE SLIM AFTER THEIR LOSS ARIZONA 2, DODGERS 0.

Byline: Rich Hammond  Staff Writer

The Dodgers' 2-0 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday did more than hand the National League West title to the San Francisco Giants. It also cast a pall over the Dodgers' clubhouse, a feeling that the season, with 12 games remaining, might already have slipped away.

``We have no margin for error,'' center fielder Dave Roberts said after the Dodgers totaled three hits in the loss before 35,162 at Dodger Stadium and fell 3 1/2 games behind the Florida Marlins for the wild-card spot. ``Obviously there's still a chance, but it's definitely slim.''

It's beginning to look bleak for the Dodgers, who also fell behind the Chicago Cubs into fourth place in the wild-card standings and lost the first two games of a series they almost certainly had to win. The Giants' victory, which made them the first team to clinch a division title, only increased the grief.

``We have 12 games left, and obviously we have to win a lot of those,'' manager Jim Tracy said. ``Our schedule is very, very tough the rest of the way, but we have to find a way to put together one more streak, like we have so many times this season.''

The Dodgers scored fewer than two runs for the 37th time this season and wasted a tremendous effort from 20-year-old starter Edwin Jackson (1-1), who allowed two solo home runs to Luis Gonzalez among his five hits in eight innings. Jackson walked two and struck out four in his second career start and retired the final 11 batters he faced.

Arizona starter Brandon Webb (10-7) allowed two hits over eight innings, and Matt Mantei pitched the ninth for this 25th save.

``Unfortunately, we were unable to score,'' Tracy said. ``You have to give Brandon Webb some credit, he pitched a very fine game. We had two guys combine for three hits, so there's not a whole lot of ways to think about the possibility of us winning this game.''

The Dodgers couldn't have asked much more from Jackson, who made the jump from Double-A Jacksonville (Fla.) last week and was given less than 24 hours' notice that he was starting Wednesday in place of left-hander Odalis Perez, who has a chipped fingernail on his pitching hand.

Jackson beat the Diamondbacks eight days before, when he allowed one run on four hits in six innings. The numbers weren't much different Wednesday, and Jackson was near brilliant other than two pitches to Gonzalez.

Gonzalez homered with two outs in the first inning, and his second homer, with one out in the third, was the last hit allowed by Jackson, who gave up only a fourth-inning walk before leaving after the seventh with 93 pitches.

It didn't matter how well Jackson pitched because the Dodgers could not solve Webb, a 24-year-old rookie right-hander whom the Dodgers had battered for four runs in seven innings Sept. 10. Webb allowed two hits in eight innings, walked three and struck out five.

The Dodgers' best chance came in the first inning, when Webb had difficulty throwing strikes. With one out, Paul Lo Duca was hit by a pitch and Shawn Green walked.

After Fred McGriff struck out looking on a tough slider, Adrian Beltre beat out an infield single by a step to load the bases. But Jeromy Burnitz grounded out to end the inning in what would be the Dodgers' only real scoring chance.

``His movement was tremendous,'' Tracy said of Webb, ``even once the ball reached the strike zone. He shut us down.''

Webb retired eight of the next nine batters after Beltre's infield single, and his only minor spot of trouble came in the fourth inning, when Alex Cora grounded into a fielder's choice but advanced to second on a throwing error. Cesar Izturis struck out to end the inning.

Jackson retired the first two batters, but Gonzalez lifted a 2-2 pitch to center that just cleared the fence and the glove of a leaping Roberts. Jackson quickly got himself back in trouble with consecutive singles by Shea Hillenbrand and Alex Cintron but escaped the inning with a fielder's-choice grounder.

Rich Hammond, [phone]

rich.hammond(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

photo, 3 boxes

Photo:

(color) The Dodgers' Dave Roberts can't get to Luis Gonzalez's first-inning home run Wednesday. Gonzalez later hit a second homer and Arizona won.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer

Box:

(1) STORY LINES

(2) NL WILD CARD

(3) DODGERS vs. ARIZONA