QUIET NIGHT, AGAIN DODGERS' BATS ARE SILENCED IN LOSS N.Y. METS 7, DODGERS 0.

Byline: TONY JACKSON  Staff Writer

NEW YORK -- Forget the fact their starting rotation is coming apart, having been sabotaged by Chad Billingsley's injury, Mark Hendrickson's ineptitude and Brad Penny's second-half free fall.

Forget the fact their most formidable division rival has inched close enough in the standings to potentially overtake them within hours.

Forget all that, because the Dodgers have a new problem to contend with.

Or rather, a new old problem.

For the second time in the past three games, the Dodgers were shut out, this time 7-0 by the high-flying New York Mets in front of 48,583 Friday at dilapidated Shea Stadium. The Dodgers have scored a total of two runs in their past 30 innings, a lack of production eerily reminiscent of that horrific stretch coming out of the All-Star break, when they dropped 13 of 14 games while scoring an embarrassing 29 runs.

As such, it didn't really matter that Penny failed to get through the sixth inning for the fourth consecutive start, and it didn't really matter that he was torched for seven runs on 10 hits over 5 1/3 innings. All that mattered was that Penny began the bottom of the first inning by giving up three consecutive singles to Carlos Reyes, Paul Lo Duca and Carlos Beltran, giving the Mets a 1-0 lead.

While no one could have known it at the time, that lone run was all it would take to do in the once-again punchless Dodgers. They could do absolutely nothing against veteran left-hander Tom Glavine, just as they hadn't done much against Milwaukee lefties Doug Davis and Chris Capuano in the previous two games.

That Derek Lowe pitched the Dodgers to a 2-1 win in the Capuano game was significant in the standings, but otherwise irrelevant, because when it comes to offense, the Dodgers suddenly have a glaring weakness that no one seems to know how to solve.

``I don't have the answer, I can tell you that,'' Dodgers manager Grady Little said. ``If I did, we would have addressed the situation before it got too far out of hand. The last few days, we haven't gotten enough hits to score very many runs.''

Glavine is a two-time Cy Young Award winner who at 40 is as crafty as ever and still gets a wide strike zone from most plate umpires. Capuano, like Penny, was a 2006 National League All-Star. As for Davis, while he isn't a strong candidate to win a Cy Young Award in his lifetime, he might as well have been Cy Young himself the way he silenced the Dodgers in Tuesday night's complete-game, four-hit shutout.

But Little refused to chalk up the Dodgers' latest teamwide hitting slump to having faced those three stalwarts. Besides, if a team is serious about winning a division and playing deep into October, it has to occasionally beat a pitcher of their quality.

``It's just a collective team struggle,'' Little said.

The Dodgers (74-66) went 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position, and idle San Diego crept to within a half-game of them in the National League West.

``I don't think we should be panicking right now, and I don't think anybody is,'' Dodgers infielder Julio Lugo said. ``We just have to relax and play. We can't be doing anything differently. We need to just play the game the way we can, and we're going to find it.''

Penny (15-8), who entered the day as the National League leader in wins, hasn't been the same since starting the All-Star Game and blowing hitters away with fastballs in the high 90s. In 11 post-All-Star starts, he is 5-6 with a 6.50 ERA.

``It's just breaks,'' he said. ``A lot of things go your way, and a lot of things don't. That first inning, I made mistakes to Beltran and (Carlos) Delgado. As far as Lo Duca, I jammed him a little bit, and I jammed Reyes in his first at-bat. (Shawn) Green hit a ground ball to (first baseman) Nomar (Garciaparra) that hit the dirt so hard it bounced over his head.

``My changeup was probably the best one I have had in my career.''

Glavine (13-6) gave up only five hits in 6 1/3 innings and retired 10 consecutive Dodgers from the first inning through the fourth. Green, whom the Dodgers traded to Arizona two winters ago, went 2 for 3 with two doubles. Jose Valentin, whom they opted not to re-sign last offseason, crushed a second-inning solo homer to give Glavine a 3-0 lead.

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New York's Jose Reyes reacts after hitting an inside-the-park home run in the sixth inning of Thursday's game against the Dodgers.

Frank Franklin II/Associated Press