ROAD BLOCKED MISTAKES COST L.A. IN GAME 1 DEFEAT.

Byline: TONY JACKSON  Staff Writer

NEW YORK -- By the middle of the seventh inning, the Dodgers had overcome their embarrassing baserunning gaffe, their inability to hit the eminently hittable John Maine and a control-challenged performance by Derek Lowe that didn't last nearly long enough.

They had just gotten a two-out, two-run double by playoff-tested Nomar Garciaparra that tied the score and epitomized the notion of clutch hitting, and they were in position to win a game they had once trailed by three runs.

And then, Brad Penny came in. At a point Joe Beimel would have, had he not been back in Los Angeles getting his left pinky finger stitched up.

Penny, making his first relief appearance in almost three months, walked two of the first three batters he faced. Predictably, both of them scored. And predictably, the Dodgers never recovered, falling 6-5 to the New York Mets in front of a sellout crowd of 56,979 on Wednesday at Shea Stadium.

With that, the Dodgers fell into a 1-0 hole in what already looks like a National League Division Series for the ages.

After the game, Penny said his balky lower back wasn't a problem, that he felt no discomfort. Manager Grady Little said Penny's stuff was so electric that he feels more confident than ever in handing him the ball for a potential Game 4 on Sunday at Dodger Stadium.

But that didn't change the fact that Penny walked Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran, both on full counts. He then fell behind 2-0 to Carlos Delgado, a left-handed batter that screamed for the lefty reliever Little didn't have left in his bullpen because Beimel was hurt and Mark Hendrickson had been used. Delgado broke the tie with an RBI single to left-center, part of a 4-for-5 performance in the first postseason game of his career.

David Wright then doubled for the second time in two innings, making it 6-4.

``I just came in and maybe tried to do a little too much,'' Penny said. ``I guess I was just a little overamped.''

The Dodgers closed to within a run on Ramon Martinez's pinch-hit RBI double in the ninth and left the tying run in scoring position when Garciaparra missed a chance for more heroics by striking out against Billy Wagner.

The one-run loss only magnified a bizarre second-inning play in which Mets catcher Paul Lo Duca was able to tag out both Jeff Kent and J.D. Drew at the plate on the same play.

It was a play that for the Dodgers will live in infamy for at least 24 hours -- and maybe even for an entire winter.

``Those are the kind of things that, when they happen, those traffic jams, they end up coming back to haunt you,'' Little said. ``And it certainly did.''

With Kent on second, Drew on first and none out, Russell Martin hit a towering fly ball that caromed off the wall in the right-field corner. Caromed perfectly, in fact, into the glove of Mets right fielder Shawn Green, who fired a strike to second baseman Jose Valentin, who fired another one to Lo Duca.

Lo Duca easily tagged Kent, then seemed as surprised as anyone in the park to see Drew bearing down on him. For good measure, Lo Duca tagged him out, too.

Just like that, three former Dodgers had combined to gun down two current ones.

Ultimately, it didn't matter much that Marlon Anderson's subsequent double would score Martin for a short-lived 1-0 lead.

``After I saw the bounce, I had it in mind to hold up Kent,'' Dodgers third-base coach Rich Donnelly said. ``But as I looked up, J.D. was 10 feet behind him, so I couldn't hold (Kent) up because we would've had two guys on third. So I waved Jeff through and then just watched the play at the plate. And all of a sudden, J.D. went right by me.''

Drew later said he interpreted Donnelly's waving of Kent as Donnelly waving Drew.

``I thought he was trying to score me,'' Drew said. ``I thought Jeff was going to score standing up. It was just one of those situations. I didn't realize the ball had one-hopped off the wall to Shawn.''

Drew and Kent acknowledged that Kent, upon seeing the ball hit the wall, yelled back at Drew to take off. After Kent rounded third, Donnelly said he gave no indication to Drew either to stop or go.

``I don't know if there is a place to put the blame,'' Kent said.

But when it comes to this loss, the Dodgers' 10th in their past 11 postseason games, there were plenty of places to put it.

Lowe needed 94 pitches to get through 5 1/3 innings, and although he walked only two batters, he was constantly behind in counts.

In the fourth inning, it finally caught up to him, when he gave up solo homers to Delgado and Cliff Floyd, both on 2-1 counts. He was lifted in the sixth, shortly after giving up a two-run double to Wright that made it 4-1.

Maine, starting because veteran postseason hero Orlando Hernandez was scratched from the series with a calf injury, held the Dodgers to one run over 4 1/3 innings.

But after former teammate Guillermo Mota blew the Dodgers away in a perfect sixth, they got to him in the seventh by working counts.

Garciaparra's double, just beyond the glove of Wright at third, came on the 30th pitch of Mota's rare two-inning stint.

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CAPTION(S):

5 photos, 5 boxes

Photo:

(1 -- color) The Mets' Cliff Floyd, right, celebrates with Shawn Green after hitting a solo home run.

Bill Kostroun/Associated Press

(2 -- color) New York Mets catcher Paul Lo Duca, right center, sets to throw after tagging out the Dodgers' J.D. Drew, sliding. LoDuca had just tagged out Jeff Kent, left, as well.

Suzy Allman/The New York Times

(3 -- color) The Dodgers' Jeff Kent is tagged out at the plate for the first out in an unassisted double play by New York Mets catcher Paul Lo Duca. J.D. Drew was also tagged out at home on the play.

Chris McGrath/Getty Images

(4 -- color) The Dodgers' Brad Penny, left, talks with catcher Russell Martin during Wednesday's game. Penny allowed two runs on two hits and two walks in the seventh inning.

Travis Lindquist/Getty Images

(5 -- color) Paul Lo Duca

Bill Kostroun/Associated Press

Box:

(1) GAME 1

(2) GAME 2

(3) GAME 3

(4) GAME 4

(5) GAME 5