By BERNIE WILSON
AP Sports Writer

SAN DIEGO(AP) -- Joe Torre tried to be philosophical after the Los
Angeles Dodgers failed for the third consecutive game to clinch
their second straight NL West title.

"What's worthwhile is worth the wait," the manager said after
his Dodgers lost 3-1 to San Diego on Tuesday night. Tony Gwynn
Jr. homered and Kevin Kouzmanoff singled in the go-ahead run for
the Padres.

The Dodgers have lost three straight since securing a playoff
spot on Saturday night. Colorado didn't do the Dodgers any
favors, beating Milwaukee 7-5 in 11 innings.

Tuesday's results forced the Dodgers to keep on ice the
champagne they'd lugged with them from Pittsburgh, where they
lost three of four to the Pirates, the NL's second-worst team.

Heath Bell, who turned 32 on Tuesday, pitched a perfect ninth
for his NL-best 41st save in 47 chances, striking out Manny
Ramirez, Matt Kemp and James Loney.

"We had a couple of opportunities with a couple of men on base
and came up short," Torre said. "The pitching was good. We
didn't do anything offensively."

The last thing the Padres want is to see the hated Dodgers
celebrate on their field.

"It means a lot because we are not in the hunt, we're not in the
playoffs," Kouzmanoff said. "It's fun to go out and try to hurt
them and try to disrupt them from being in the hunt."

With his Hall of Fame father doing color commentary on the local
cable broadcast, Gwynn hit a drive down the right-field line
with two outs in the third inning for a 1-0 lead. It was his
second homer of the season.

The Dodgers tied it in the sixth when Orlando Hudson hit a
leadoff triple into the gap in right-center field and scored
when rookie shortstop Everth Cabrera booted Andre Ethier's
grounder.

That brought up Ramirez, and Padres manager Bud Black pulled
rookie left-hander Cesar Ramos, who was making his first big
league start, in favor of rookie righty Ryan Webb (2-0), who got
the slugger to hit into a double play. Kemp grounded out to end
the inning.

Ramirez missed Monday's 11-1 loss at Pittsburgh with tightness
in his left hamstring. He went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts on
Tuesday night.

Chad Billingsley walked the bases loaded with two outs in the
sixth before Kouzmanoff singled up the middle to bring in David
Eckstein with the go-ahead run. Adrian Gonzalez was thrown out
trying to score from second.

Billingsley (12-11) lost for the fifth time in his last seven
starts. He hasn't won since Aug. 18 against St. Louis. He
allowed two runs and two hits, struck out five and walked five
in six innings.

"I threw the ball well today," Billingsley said. "I had good
command throughout the game; just the one pitch to Tony Gwynn
where I missed my spot. Can't do anything about that. Overall I
was very happy."

Billingsley has yielded a home run in seven of his last eight
starts, and Gwynn's shot was the 17th allowed by the
right-hander this season, extending his career high.

San Diego added a run in the seventh on Hong-Chih Kuo's wild
pitch.

The first two Dodgers batters of the game reached and neither
scored. Rafael Furcal singled to left to extend his hitting
streak to 12 and Hudson walked. Ethier hit into a 4-3-6-5 double
play, where the Padres had Hudson in a pickle between first and
second, then let him advance as they caught Furcal at third
after he took a step too many toward home, then tried to get
back to the base.

The Dodgers stranded two runners in the sixth.

Ramos, making his fourth big league appearance, allowed one run
and four hits in five innings.

NOTES: Torre said left-hander Randy Wolf will start Friday night
at home against the Rockies, but beyond that, he didn't name
starters for the rest of the weekend series. However, he said
LHP Clayton Kershaw, who missed three weeks with a right
shoulder injury, needs to throw about 90 pitches this weekend.
... Torre will have to cut his six-man rotation to four for the
playoffs. ... Los Angeles' Casey Blake and Ronnie Belliard both
continued to sit out with injuries. ... Gonzalez walked three
times to extend his career high to 113 and take over the NL lead
over Albert Pujols and Adam Dunn, each with 112.