PITCHING DUEL IS A LETDOWN STARTERS ARE GONE EARLY IN SLUGFEST.

Byline: TONY JACKSON 

Staff Writer

It was supposed to be a compelling matchup of marquee pitchers, one making his final appearance before heading to his second All-Star Game, the other a two-time All-Star himself who was left out this year if only because teammate John Smoltz is having an even better season than he is.

But if you wanted to see Dodgers ace Brad Penny square off against Atlanta stalwart Tim Hudson, you had to look quickly. They were both gone by the end of the fourth inning, neither lasting long in a crazy game in which the Braves led 7-6 in the middle of the seventh inning before 41,052 at Dodger Stadium.

Then again, maybe you didn't have to look quickly, because it took an hour and a half - during which a dozen runs were scored, 19 hits were given up, 11 baserunners were stranded and almost 150 pitches were thrown - just to get to that point.

Along the way, there was all manner of ugliness, not all of it the fault of Penny and Hudson. There were three errors committed. There were walks galore. There were missed opportunities all over the place, both offensively and defensively.

There was even the rather unsightly sight of Penny trying to leg out a double on the ball he hit up the left-center field gap in the second inning, only to have the throw beat him easily, only to have the ball dropped allowing Penny to somehow be safe and prolong the inning on an evening when he would go 2 for 2 and tie his career high with three RBI.

That, however, is where the positives ended for Penny, who summoned trainer Stan Conte to the mound in the first inning with what appeared to be a blister on his pitching hand, and whose pitches were routinely blistered all over the park by the Braves.

Not that Hudson was any better, mind you. At least Penny was able to gut his way through the fourth after Dodgers manager Grady Little took a huge gamble by leaving him in.

Braves skipper Bobby Cox wasn't willing to take the same chance with Hudson, who gave up a leadoff triple to Juan Pierre immediately after Atlanta had tied the game with two runs in the top of the fourth. Cox immediately yanked Hudson, who to that point had allowed six runs on 10 hits.

But in a development that would haunt the Dodgers, reliever Peter Moylan made sure Pierre never got any farther.

Russell Martin bounced back to the mound on a 2-0 pitch. Jeff Kent struck out on three pitches. And Luis Gonzalez grounded weakly to first.

The Dodgers would load the bases against Moylan in the fifth, aided by yet another error when first baseman Scott Thorman fielded what should have been an inning-ending grounder by Rafael Furcal, ran to the bag and promptly dropped the ball just as Furcal crossed. But Pierre flied weakly to left, and the Braves then went ahead on Chipper Jones' home run off Eric Stults in the sixth.

The Dodgers would get two more runners on in the sixth, this time against Chad Paronto. But James Loney grounded sharply to second to end that threat.

To that point, the Dodgers had left 10 runners on base, including at least one in every inning, with six of them in scoring position.

Penny's second hit, a two-run single in the third, broke a 4-4 tie and capped a four-run rally by the Dodgers.

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Dodgers pitcher Brad Penny drives in two runs with a third-inning single Thursday.

(2) The Dodgers' Jeff Kent slides past Braves catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia with a run in the third inning Thursday.

John McCoy/Staff Photographer