SMALL THINGS GET BEST OF LITTLE'S SQUAD.

Byline: STEVE DILBECK

NEW YORK - Not good enough.

Now there's a snappy little epitaph a team never wants to see on its postseason tombstone.

Right now, the Dodgers plainly aren't good enough to beat the Mets. Not when it comes down to power, pitching, fielding, or particularly Thursday night, simply doing those prized little things.

The Dodgers fell 4-1 on a cool New York night, fell without much of a fight, fell without dramatics, fell to find themselves looking up at a 0-2 deficit in a short division series threatening to become painfully short.

It's less that the Dodgers were completely awful, than just not real good.

They could not come up with the big hit, manufacture runs, get clutch pitching, extend at-bats, get the bunt down, make clean plays -- all the little things the Mets excelled at Thursday.

``We're in a tough spot,'' Dodgers manager Grady Little said.

One more loss and it's a season. One more non-performance and it's a familiar post-1988 Dodgers' playoff run.

Veteran Tom Glavine played the wily veteran, the Dodgers the befuddled foil. Glavine was masterful in shutting the Dodgers out for six innings. The Dodgers were frustrated, unable to find their footing, their game.

``He's a tough pitcher when you want to push your game a little bit,'' second baseman Jeff Kent said. ``He mixes things up, uses the change-up. There was some frustration on our part.''

The Dodgers never played their game Thursday, never really resembled the team that closed September on such an impressive roll.

Now they are left talking brave about returning home, about how teams have come back from 0-2 in division series before, about how many times during the regular season they proved they can come back.

Only never before did one loss mean an end to their season. Never before have they had to face the abyss knowing one more step and it was the final fall.

``I don't think it's any different,'' shortstop Rafael Furcal said. ``They have to win another one. We're going home. Let's see what happens.''

What had better happen is they start to get more production from the top of their order. In the two games, leadoff hitter Furcal is 1 for 7, and he looks like he's on fire compared to No.2 hitter Kenny Lofton.

Lofton is now 0 for 8 with four strikeouts. You could say he looks completely lost at the plate, but he did refuse to bat in the eighth inning Thursday because there was a bus parked just beyond the center-field fence that was distracting him. They moved the bus, and then he struck out.

Of even more concern is the health of No.3 hitter Nomar Garciaparra.

Garciaparra aggravated his sore right quadriceps muscle running out an infield single in the fourth for the Dodgers' first hit. He remained in the game until being replaced in the sixth, but this is nothing but bad news for a team needing all hands on deck at a time its postseason ambitions are taking on serious water.

``I thought it was feeling pretty good and then it grabbed me again,'' he said. ``I obviously wasn't ready for the push.''

And then there is J.D. Drew, who has one infield hit in eight at-bats. With a Dodgers offense fading, and reduced to just five hits Thursday, they are in great need of Garciaparra's frequent dramatics.

Thursday the Mets weren't exactly knocking the ball around, but they made the most of their opportunities.

They scored their first run off Hong-Chih Kuo in the third when Endy Chavez led off with a bunt. Kuo's wild pitch sent Chavez to second, a Glavine groundout to the right side sent him to third and a Jose Reyes groundout brought him home.

The Mets scored their second run in similar little-ball fashion in the fifth. Jose Valentin walked and took second on a Chavez single. Glavine then set down a perfect sacrifice bunt and Valentin scored on a PaulLo Duca sacrifice fly.

Nothing flashy, but it would be all the Mets would need.

After a pair of singles to lead off the sixth, Valentin got a bunt down that third baseman Wilson Betemit couldn't get to and that reliever Brett Tomko threw wide enough of first to draw a covering Julio Lugo off the base for an error, though the ball popped out of Lugo's mitt.

Julio Franco, he of the rings around his trunk, then beat out a potential double-play ball, hustling down the line to belie his 48 years and allow a run to score. Reyes added the only RBI single of the night and that was your offensive outburst.

The Mets did all the little things the Dodgers could not.

``That's why they've taken the first two games,'' Garciaparra said.

The Dodgers avoided a shutout when Betemit hit a solo home run in the eighth off reliever Aaron Heilman, but that just about wrapped up their night's highlight package.

They aren't hitting, they aren't pushing the action, they aren't manufacturing runs, they aren't getting good enough pitching. They are down to one loss -- and see ya.

``We just have to get on a hot streak,'' said catcher Russell Martin. ``We've done it before. We have a team that can definitely do it.'''

The Mets are going to start Steve Trachsel, who was on a leave of absence for personal reasons and hasn't pitched in almost two weeks, in Game 3, and if necessary, Oliver Perez (1-3, 6.63 ERA) in Game 4 only because Orlando Hernandez was a late playoff scratch with an injured calf.

So there is hope, but something will have to change in Los Angeles.

Because right now, the Dodgers just aren't good enough.

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Photo:

(color) The Dodgers' Kenny Lofton turns to walk back to the dugout after striking out in the eighth inning.

Henny Ray Abrams/Associated Press

(color) New York Mets starter Tom Glavine shut down the Dodgers through six innings Thursday, scattering four hits.

Brendan McDermid-Pool/Getty Images