OUTLOOK IS GETTING BLEAK FOR DODGERS LOSS PUTS THEM 1 1/2 GAMES BACK ARIZONA 9, DODGERS 3.

Byline: TONY JACKSON Staff Writer

The Dodgers were caught in a perfect storm of ineptitude on Saturday night.

The damage won't be fully assessed for a few days, but early indications are that it was significant.

In the biggest blow yet to their flagging playoff hopes, the Dodgers suffered an untimely bout of bad pitching, bad hitting, bad defense, bad baserunning and bad luck. The result was a crushing 9-3 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks in front of 49,791 at Dodger Stadium that left the home team, for the first time since Aug. 10, no longer controlling its own destiny in the hunt for a postseason berth.

The Dodgers fell 1 1/2 games behind San Diego in the National League West and a half-game behind Philadelphia in the wild-card standings.

With eight precious days left to try to reverse the trend.

The Dodgers will close out their home schedule this afternoon with a series rubber game against Arizona, in what is essentially their first must-win game of the season. But it won't be their last.

It will be quickly followed, after an off day Monday, by three games at notoriously unpredictable Colorado and three more at notoriously hostile San Francisco. It is a frighteningly treacherous path to the playoffs that wasn't made any easier by Saturday's collapse.

And the worst part is that it came after such a promising start.The Dodgers scored three runs in the first inning off longtime nemesis Miguel Batista, the veteran right-hander who threw a six-hit shutout at them on July 19 at Chase Field. But that lead had vanished by the top of the second, a rally that began when Brad Penny struck out Chad Tracy, only to have him reach first when catcher Russell Martin committed a passed ball.

Carlos Quentin, the fourth batter of the inning, yanked a two-run homer into the left-field pavilion to tie the score, bringing a shower of boos down upon the ineffective Penny.

From there, the Dodgers reverted to their usual form against Batista.Russell Martin led off the second with a double but didn't score. J.D. Drew led off the fourth with a double but didn't score. And Andre Ethier, Rafael Furcal and Kenny Lofton, the three batters the Dodgers sent to the plate in the fifth, and Nomar Garciaparra and Jeff Kent, the first two batters they sent up in the seventh, made five outs on a total of seven pitches from Batista.

The Diamondbacks took a 4-3 lead in the third on a leadoff double by Orlando Hudson and a one-out RBI single by Johnny Estrada.

They made it 5-3 in the fourth, on what should have been an inning- ending, double-play grounder by Luis Gonzalez. Furcal, hours after learning he would be the recipient of the Dodgers' first annual Roy Campanella Award, booted the ball and didn't get a single out, allowing a run to score.

The Diamondbacks put the game out of reach on an RBI single by Conor Jackson in the seventh.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers repeatedly played into the hands of Batista, swinging way too early and way too often. Consequently, he got through the first seven innings on just 86 pitches - the strongest indication yet that these fast-fading Dodgers are at best pressing and at worst panicking.

Penny (16-9) was gone after five innings, marking the sixth time in the past eight games a Dodgers starter has failed to go longer and the sixth time in Penny's past seven starts that he has failed to complete six.

Although he struck out seven, the Diamondbacks got to him for five runs (four earned) on nine hits.

Batista (11-7) improved to 3-0 in four starts this season against the Dodgers. After that rough-and-tumble first inning, when four of the first five Dodgers batters reached base against him, he gave up just two more hits and didn't allow another run.

The Dodgers have gone just 4-5 on this final homestand, a 10-game stretch they had hoped would give them breathing room before hitting the road for the daunting week to come. Instead, it is threatening to suffocate them at a point when they can least afford it.

The celebrated quartet of rookies Ethier, Matt Kemp, James Loney and Russell Martin, all of whom performed so well for the Dodgers earlier in the seaso, are hitting a combined .108 for the homestand, a clear indication the strain of a pennant race and playing far beyond Labor Day for the first time in their lives is taking both a mental and physical toll.

[e-mail]

[phone]

CAPTION(S):

3 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- color) Dodgers shortstop Rafael Furcal can't handle this ground ball, allowing a run to score in the fourth inning.

(2) Dodgers catcher Russell Martin tries to control the ball as Arizona's Chad Tracy scores from first on a double by Conor Jackson.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer

(3) KUO 

Box:

DODGERS VS. ARIZONA

- Tony Jackson