Missteps have Dodgers blue

LOS ANGELES -- The Mets spotted the Dodgers one Pedro and an El Duque, and still came away winning the first two games of their National League Division Series, abetted no end by the Dodgers' disturbing tendency to make mistakes at critical times.

A wild pitch, misplaying a bunt, and failing to turn a double play with a senior citizen running down the line fall well short of the base-running blunders the Dodgers committed in Game 1, but together they created enough havoc to allow the Mets to take a commanding advantage in this best-of-five series .

Still, the notion that the Mets have only open road between themselves and the next round of the playoffs may be overstating things, given that the Dodgers now return to Dodger Stadium, where they won 49 games this season -- only the Mets (52-29) had a better record on their home turf -- and have Greg Maddux and his 333 big league wins poised to go in Game 3 tonight.

The Mets, meanwhile, have Steve Trachsel, who missed his last regular-season start after going home to San Diego to deal with a personal situation and hadn't been seen until surfacing for the team's workout yesterday in LA. Their Game 4 starter, if they need one, appears to be Oliver Perez, whose 3-13 record and 6.55 ERA while pitching for the Pirates and Mets ranks as one of the great nose-holders in postseason history.

Perez probably wouldn't have been on the postseason roster but Pedro Martínez's legs, and then his shoulder, gave out on him, followed in short order by Orlando ``El Duque" Hernandez tearing a calf muscle jogging in the outfield the day before his scheduled Game 1 start.

Compounding the Dodgers' task was the news yesterday that an MRI showed first baseman Nomar Garciaparra tore his left quadriceps muscle and will be available only as a pinch hitter, and even that's questionable. How much will the Dodgers miss him? He had five walkoff hits for the Dodgers this season, including two home runs, the second a grand slam, within six days of each other.

On the flip side, rookie first baseman James Loney is one of the top young prospects in baseball, leading the minors with a .380 average in Triple A Las Vegas and driving in nine runs in a four-hit, two-HR game against the Rockies, including a grand slam off former Sox pitcher Byung-Hyun Kim.

``If I tear it completely, the only way to repair [it] is surgically," Garciaparra said yesterday. ``I knew the risk of playing with the strain. The past two weeks, I didn't run all out; I knew I couldn't. But [Thursday] night, that extra effort to make sure I was safe is what got me. It's instinct and you can't control it."

The Mets didn't seem too concerned about who they will be running out to the mound this weekend, particularly since their bullpen has performed so admirably in the first two games. Billy Wagner (two saves), lefthander Pedro Feliciano, and Aaron Heilman have pitched in both games, and submariner Chad Bradford, who last season was in the employ of the Red Sox, along with Guillermo Mota, who briefly belonged to the Sox but never pitched for them, got big outs in Game 1.

``It's a strength for us," Mets manager Willie Randolph said of his bullpen, ``a big part of our club. So far, they've come through."

The Mets' bench also came up big in Game 2, with reserve outfielder Endy Chavez contributing a drag bunt single and coming around to score the Mets' first run, then singling in the fifth to set up their second run.

Chavez drew the start over former Dodger Shawn Green. ``The guy can play, that's why he's in the game," said Randolph, whose moves have been rewarded with much better outcomes than those of Grady Little, the Dodger manager who is catching flak for the way he has handled his bullpen.

Little also paid dearly for Garciaparra's departure in the sixth inning Thursday because he had to reshuffle his infield, with Jeff Kent moving from second to first, Julio Lugo from third to second, and Wilson Betemit entering the game at third. Betemit reacted poorly to a sacrifice bunt by Jose Valentin, breaking back to the bag instead of handling the ball. Then Lugo, covering first, couldn't handle an off-balance throw from pitcher Brett Tomko -- the pitcher was charged with the error, but Little said Lugo should have gotten the ``E."

The Mets parlayed that misplay into two runs, the first when 48-year-old Julio Franco beat the relay on an attempted double play, the second when Jose Reyes singled.

Randolph chuckled when asked about Franco's extra gear. ``I was, `Oh, jeez, get down there quick.' He rolled over on a changeup. But it's amazing how he competes. That was a huge, you know, huge play for us because it kept things going for us a little bit."

So now the Dodgers turn to Maddux, who won six games since coming from the Cubs in a trading deadline deal. Even at 40, the four-time Cy Young Award winner has shown the knack to rise to the occasion. In his first start as a Dodger, he went six innings without allowing a hit. In his last start, he allowed the Giants just three hits in seven innings as the Dodgers clinched a postseason spot.

The possibility exists that this will be the last game of Maddux's big league career.

``I honestly haven't thought about it," he said. ``There's way too much on my plate right now to worry about next year. I'm doing what I can to put myself in position to have success for the rest of the season."