PEREZ SHELLSHOCKED BY FIFTH-INNING FIFTH-INNING IMPLOSION STARTER GIVES UP SEVEN RUNS AS DODGERS WATCH 6-0 CUSHION TURNS INTO LOSS.

Byline: TONY JACKSON  Staff Writer

PHOENIX - Two Octobers ago, Odalis Perez took the mound in the biggest game of his big-league career while his mother was undergoing surgery in Miami to have a tumor removed from her stomach. The St. Louis Cardinals touched him for six runs that afternoon, sending him to the clubhouse in the bottom of the third inning, and Perez later admitted that worrying about his mom detracted from his focus.

On Tuesday night, Perez took the mound against Arizona, knowing his mother again was hospitalized in the Dominican Republic with stomach pain similar to what she had felt before the aforementioned operation. But this time, the Dodgers staked him to what should have been a comfortable, six-run lead.

Alas, it wasn't comfortable enough.

Perez gave it all back with a single, fifth-inning implosion that began with a solo homer by his least favorite ex-teammate, Shawn Green, and ended with a tying grand slam by Chad Tracy. It was the second time in three days that the Dodgers blew a lead of five runs or more, and it wound up being the third time in three days that they lost, this time 10-8 to the Diamondbacks in front of 23,198 at Chase Field.

Perez left the game after walking Luis Gonzalez. The Diamondbacks then tacked a seventh run onto Perez's pitching line when Kenny Lofton misplayed what should have been an inning-ending fly ball by Conor Jackson (El Camino Real High of Woodland Hills) into an RBI double against rookie Jonathan Broxton.

J.D. Drew tied the score with the first of his two solo homers in the seventh, saving Perez from the loss. But in the bottom of the same inning, Takashi Saito couldn't find the strike zone, the Diamondbacks scored twice, and the Dodgers prepared to trudge home from a 3-5 road trip that offered little reason to believe they can contend this season, even in the laughable National League West.

``To tell you the truth, I don't know what happened,'' said the shellshocked Perez.

``For me, everything was working good, even if I wasn't out there 100 percent. I was thinking about what is happening in the Dominican. But at the same time, I have to go out there and do my job, even if there is no way for me to concentrate 100 percent on the game.''

Dodgers manager Grady Little, who has been criticized in the past for sticking far too long with a struggling starting pitcher, alarmingly waited a long time before getting his bullpen going in the bottom of the fifth. And then, he waited just long enough to bring in a reliever that the lead got away.

``He has to get (Tracy) out in that situation,'' Little said. ``He's our starting pitcher, and he had been staked to a 6-0 lead in the fifth inning. That's the guy you have to get out. He kept firing ... but it wasn't good enough. There have been too many times this year when we have squandered five-run leads and six-run leads, and it's starting to get old.''

The Dodgers (12-15) build that cushion on, of all things, timely hitting, which might have resulted from Little's juggling of the lineup. Rafael Furcal, hitting second for the first time this season, doubled home Kenny Lofton from second in the fourth, making it 6-0.

At that point, the Dodgers were 4for 7 with runners in scoring position. From there, they went 0 for 9, another reason why they now have lost three in a row for the first time this season and why they failed to capitalize on a loss by division-leading Colorado, remaining three games behind the Rockies and just a half-game ahead of last-place San Diego.

Two batters after Drew tied the score, rookie Andre Ethier poked a double down the leftfield line for his first major-league hit in his first major-league game. But Olmedo Saenz and Dioner Navarro grounded out, stranding Ethier on third, and Saito (2-1) began the bottom half by walking Jackson.

From there, the Diamondbacks built a two-run inning against Saito, who came in with a 0.69 ERA. Green made it 10-7 with an RBI double in the eighth, capping a 4-for-4 night in which he reached base five times. Perez denied that the seemingly innocuous home run by Green affected him. Perez is widely known to despise Green, who while with the Dodgers frequently failed to produce offensively when Perez was pitching.

tony.jackson(at)dailynews.com

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CAPTION(S):

3 photos, 2 boxes

Photo:

(1 -- color) The Dodgers' Kenny Lofton, right, avoids Arizona shortstop Craig Counsell's tag and slides safely into second base.

(2) Dodgers catcher Dioner Navarro, left, tags out Arizona's Eric Byrnes, right, in the fourth inning Tuesday.

(3) Arizona's Chad Tracy is congratulated after hitting a grand slam that helped the Diamondbacks to come back from 6-0 deficit.

Paul Connors/Associated Press

Box:

(1) DODGERS vs. SAN DIEGO

- Tony Jackson

(2) DODGERS vs. SAN DIEGO