BASEBALL PLAYOFFS : Dodgers Go Three and Out : NL playoffs: Reds use three home runs, including first postseason grand slam, to complete sweep, 10-1.

In a season in which the Dodgers were ridiculed for being underachievers, then shed their label a week ago to win the National League West, the nasty image returned Friday night.

The Dodgers, for only the second time in franchise history, were swept in a postseason series, losing 10-1 to the Cincinnati Reds, and suffering a three-game sweep.

The thrashing was too swift to leave the Dodgers in mourning, but it left them in utter disbelief.

In fact, not even Red owner Marge Schott could believe it ended so fast, ruining any chance of a couple of potential sellout crowds at Riverfront Stadium.

“Is it over?” Schott said. “Did I win another championship? What’s going on?”

The Dodgers fully were cognizant who won and lost, but like Schott, their senses were numbed by the completeness of the one-sided affair.

Sure, they had already packed their bags and checked out of their rooms Friday afternoon for the possibility the series would end. Still, they never quite believed the inevitable until the waning moments Friday night while the crowd of 53,276 was chanting, “Sweep, sweep, sweep.”

The Dodgers thought they had the advantage entering the series. They had won 17 of their final 25 games, the Reds struggled down the stretch, and the Reds were starting three left-handers against their powerful right-hitting lineup.

The Reds instead made them look absolutely silly. Although each team batted .279, the Reds outscored the Dodgers, 22-7, and stole nine bases to the Dodgers’ zero. The huge difference was the Dodgers’ collapse in pressure situations. The Dodgers batted .154 with runners in scoring position, and catcher Mike Piazza was 0 for 5 in those situations.

First baseman Eric Karros batted .500 for the series with two homers and four RBIs. The rest of the team batted .253 with one homer and three RBIs.

Red third baseman Mark Lewis had only two fewer RBIs than the entire Dodger team with his two pinch-hit appearances, including the first pinch-hit grand slam in postseason play in the sixth inning.

“They tried, they tried so hard that maybe it hurt them,” Lasorda said.

No one may have been more distraught than Tim Wallach. He waited 14 years to return to the playoffs. He postponed reconstructive knee surgery. Now, it ended so quickly that he didn’t have time to contemplate whether he had just played his final baseball game.

“I hurt us,” said Wallach, who hit the ball out of the infield in only two of his 12 at-bats. “I just didn’t do the job. I’m disappointed, but it certainly wasn’t because of a lack of effort.

“I hate losing, but I wouldn’t give this [experience] away for anything.”

The play that defined the Dodgers’ utter frustration this series occurred in the third inning with the game still scoreless in a pitching duel between Hideo Nomo and the Reds’ David Wells.

Shortstop Chad Fonville produced the Dodgers’ second hit with a two-out single, bringing up Piazza. Piazza lined a ball into the left-field corner and Fonville took off running. Left fielder Ron Gant ran to the wall, tried to pick up the ball, and dropped it.

Third-base coach Joe Amalfitano alertly waved Fonville home. Teammates told Fonville to slide. If they did, Fonville never heard them. No matter, he beat the relay throw from shortstop Barry Larkin, stepping over the plate.

That was the problem.

Catcher Benito Santiago stood behind the plate, looking to make sure Piazza wasn’t wandering off second base, when something caught his eye.

Home-plate umpire Joe West never ruled the run scored. Santiago turned around, heard his teammates yelling, and looked at Fonville. Fonville faked right, dove left, and Santiago tagged him out, ending the inning, leaving Karros standing on deck, and ruining any chance of Dodger momentum.

“I’m not going to blame anybody,” Fonville said. “I didn’t hear anybody. Anyway, I tripped over his foot. I should have scored easy.”

Said Piazza: “You look at that play, and you say to yourself, ‘Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be.’ I mean, come on, I’ve never seen a play like that in my life.

“You can look back and say, ‘What if this had happened, or what if that happened,’ but it didn’t happen.

“I’m not going to be ashamed of our performance.”

The Reds, perhaps believing that someone indeed was looking out after them, exploited the opportunity and took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the third when Ron Gant hit a two-run homer off Nomo into the second deck. It was Gant’s first home run in 59 at-bats, and the first homer given up by Nomo in seven starts.

Bret Boone homered for a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the fourth, then Lasorda helplessly watched the entire season unravel in the sixth.

Nomo, who yielded seven hits and five earned runs, couldn’t make it out of the inning. He opened the sixth by yielding hits to Hal Morris and Santiago, and was replaced by reliever Kevin Tapani.

Tapani, who walked four of the five batters he faced in postseason, loaded the bases by walking Boone. Lasorda called for Mark Guthrie. The Reds countered with pinch-hitter Lewis.

Piazza called for a forkball on a 2-2 count. The ball dropped, but not enough. Lewis hit it over the center-field fence for a grand slam.

“That was the best moment of my life,” Lewis said. “I never had a moment like that. Heck, I never even had a grand slam.”

The Reds made it a rout in the seventh inning when reliever Mike Jackson, of all people, hit a three-run double off left fielder Roberto Kelly’s glove. Jackson had only one RBI in his career spanning 551 appearances.

“You get so far behind in a game like that,” Karros said, “it’s almost like you’re dead.”

* THE END?

Lasorda is depressed and looking for answers after Dodgers are routed in what could be his final game as manager. C9

Stranded

A look at the Dodgers’ performance with runners on base during the series:

* Left on base: 30

* Batting average with runners in scoring position: .167 (4 for 24, 3 RBI)

* Left stranded (in scoring position): Piazza 4, Kelly 2, DeShields 2, Valdes 2, Wallach, Fonville, Mondesi, Nomo.