TOMKO DOESN'T DO ENOUGH IN LOSS ONE BAD INNING IS ENOUGH FOR DEFEAT SAN DIEGO 3, DODGERS 2.

Byline: TONY JACKSON 

Staff Writer

SAN DIEGO -- For the Dodgers, there were a handful of lessons to be gleaned from Saturday night's game, a 3-2 buzzkill of a loss to the San Diego Padres in front of a sellout crowd of 42,385 at Petco Park. Every one of them had to do with the respective starting pitchers and one-time teammates.

The Dodgers' Brett Tomko proved he can get into a zone and retire the first 11 batters he faces. The Padres' Greg Maddux proved he can get into a zone and retire the final 14 he faces.

Tomko is the sort of guy who came to the majors with dazzling stuff, the kind of pitcher who made scouts drool during his college days, but after 11 big-league seasons with six different clubs still hasn't quite figured out how to consistently use it to his advantage.

Maddux is the sort of guy who never pretended to have overpowering stuff, but he has won more than 300 games and fashioned a first-ballot Hall of Fame career out of knowing how to use the entire strike zone, how to set up hitters and how to outthink the opposition.

Tomko is the sort of guy who, after watching his perfect game vanish on a line single to center by Brian Giles with two outs in the fourth, proceeded to give up hits to the next three batters as well, instantly turning a two-run Dodgers lead into a one-run deficit that, considering the way Maddux had settled in, was essentially insurmountable.

Maddux is the sort of guy who, even after struggling through the first and second innings, managed to get through seven on just 80 pitches against the freeswinging Dodgers.

Tomko (0-2) is the sort of guy who does a little with a lot. Maddux (2-2) is the sort of guy who does a lot with a little.

And the Dodgers, who either didn't do much to keep Maddux over the winter or weren't given the chance to, are the sort of team that didn't get to ride the wave of Friday night's emotional, ninth-inning rally for long. Because now, following a game in which they allowed Maddux and two relievers to finish them off in just two hours, four minutes and with a total of just 94 pitches, the Dodgers aren't much better off than when they arrived here in the midst of a four-game losing streak.

"Everything felt good until that fourth inning," said Tomko, who recovered from that decisive, four-hit outburst to retire the next eight Padres in succession. "There was a pitch to (Khalil) Greene that kind of came back over the plate. But my pitches were where I wanted to throw them. I thought maybe the Giles pitch caught a little too much plate. It was 2-1, and I was just trying to get back in the count.

"Any one of those four hits could have been a guy popping one up or rolling one over, but that's just the way it is."

Tomko wound up allowing six hits over 61/3 innings. That would have been perfectly acceptable if he had scattered them, but he didn't.

"He ran into a tough time and lost his no-hitter, lost his shutout and lost the game, all in that one inning," Dodgers manager Grady Little said. "That's just the way it happens sometimes. He threw the ball well. I don't think (he lost focus in the fourth). He just left a couple of pitches out there in the hitting area, and they came in bunches right there."

If you count the single that Juan Pierre unsuccessfully tried to stretch into a double with one out in the eighth inning as a retired batter, Maddux and relievers Scott Linebrink and Trevor Hoffman combined to set down the final 20 Dodgers who stepped into the box against them.

Maddux was, as usual, a strike-throwing machine, making it tough for hitters to work counts against him. But even so, the Dodgers continued to have way too many plate appearances that were way too short.

There was good news. For one, reliever Chin-hui Tsao was perfect again, retiring all four batters he faced behind Tomko, and remains unscored upon in 62/3 innings spanning six appearances after missing all of last season with an injury.

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Photo:

(color) The Dodgers' Juan Pierre, left, is out at second base in the eighth inning after the Padres' Marcus Giles tagged him while trying to stretch a single.

Chris Park/Associated Press