Dodgers tumble in trip finale
07/21/2006PHOENIX -- In nearly 50 years of Los Angeles Dodgers baseball, never have they rallied from as far back as fourth place at any point after the All-Star break to finish first.
The current Dodgers are in fourth place. On Thursday night they lost to the Arizona Diamondbacks, 5-2, their seventh loss to conclude an eight-game trip that opened the second half. They are 3 1/2 games out of first place and one game out of last in the NL West.
They were swept four games in St. Louis and took one of four against the Diamondbacks. They were outscored in the eight games, 42-16. They were outhomered, 10-2. The offense was shut out twice during the trip and hit .224, while the starting pitchers had only two quality starts and a 5.24 ERA.
They've been playing short-handed, with Cesar Izturis on family leave the past four games, Jeff Kent trying to play hurt until he was disabled.
They're now 19-31 on the road, but it won't get any easier when the homestand opens Friday night because they'll be facing the first-place Cardinals again.
On this trip, they ran into hot-tempered umpires and nasty-throwing right-handers, Arizona's Cy Young contender Brandon Webb (11-3) administering the latest defeat.
"[Webb's] not the guy we needed to run up against the way we're struggling," said manager Grady Little.
And when Webb allowed the occasional baserunner, the Dodgers minimized the damage by grounding his sinker into four double plays, two by Nomar Garciaparra, whose clutch bat from the first half has cooled considerably. Dodgers runs scored on a double-play grounder and an error.
The Dodgers countered Webb with Mark Hendrickson, who couldn't repeat the quality start he threw at the Cardinals last week. He was driven from the game after 5 1/3 innings having allowed five earned runs, including a two-run homer by Carlos Quentin in his Major League debut when the score was still 3-1.
"It was kind of frustrating. I felt I had pretty good stuff," said Hendrickson, still winless as a Dodger after his trade three weeks ago. "The home run was one of the worst curveballs in the game. That's frustrating, because we still had a chance. It was kind of deflating for myself and the team."
Deflated is a pretty fitting description of the current Dodgers, who aren't much for late-inning drama with a 2-34 record when they trail after the sixth inning.
"I think we're pressing as a team," said Hendrickson. "It's not just one facet. It's every facet. From the pitchers' standpoint, we're not consistently getting deep into the game. You win as a team and lose as a team, but we're not playing very well as a team, period."
Little said Hendrickson "got about six pitches up, and got burned on every one of them." He said the double-play inning-killers go "along with the way we're playing." He conceded he had no answers for the cause of the team-wide malaise or a sure-fire cure.
"We'll just keep changing things and mixing until we find the right combination," he said. "We've got to start to get the job done."
He said he did not question the effort of his players and said the intensity is "what you'd normally see with a club in this spell. It's enough to win a game, but no one person will take over. It's got to be everybody working together."
Little knows that -- $100 million payroll aside -- his team lacks the superstar that can take over a game or put an entire team on his back and carry it. He has J.D. Drew, who was moved into the second spot in the batting order because he's hit one home run in the past two months and responded with three hits.
Thursday night's makeshift lineup also included rookies Andre Ethier and Willy Aybar batting fourth and fifth. They possess a total of 10 career Major League home runs. Ethier had two hits.
Fans hoping and praying for a savior to arrive via trade before the deadline at the end of the month might be disappointed. For one thing, the way the entire team is playing now, no one new arrival will turn this team around.
"This is probably snowballing on us, but we've got to get the players on the field playing better," said Little. "It could be that they're waiting for something to happen instead of each one making it happen. It's just got to change."
Source: http://losangeles.dodgers.mlb.com/
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