The Dodgers won three games in Petco Park in 2006 and three in 2007, and after recording their third win this season in San Diego on Tuesday, the Dodger offense didn’t seem that eager to extend their winning ways.
Los Angeles recorded its second straight lackadaisical effort, allowing Padres ace Jake Peavy to make a successful return in a 9-0 Padres rout.
After last night’s 4-1 loss, the Dodgers once again showed minimal offensive effort, once again recording a scant five hits. The Dodgers sat Andy LaRoche, who provided the only scoring last night with a solo homer in his first game of the season, and instead trotted out what might be called “infield lite.” It was Blake DeWitt, Angel Berroa, Luis Maza and James Loney around the horn, with preferred starters Nomar Garciaparra, Rafael Furcal and Jeff Kent out because of injury or old age. While Loney continues to show flashes of his potential with two hits in four at-bats, the other three combined to go 1-for-9 with two strikeouts.
The infield was bad at the bottom of the lineup, but it wasn’t alone in its ineptitude with the bat. The starting outfield, the first three batters, went 2-for-12, and Russell Martin had a rare oh-fer of his own. And again, the Dodgers drew no walks, and with hitters working only three three-ball counts. The bench also contributed nothing, with Mark Sweeney, the supposed pinch-hitter extraordinaire, lowering his average either further to .125.
Having accounted for the outfield, infield, catcher and bench, the last place to point fingers for this offensive disgrace is the starting pitching. Yes, Hiroki Kuroda, I’m talking to you. You know your team is offensively challenged and that scoring three runs is cause for celebration, so why allow five runs in the first inning? Do you think Peavy could feel any better in his first start back, pitching to a team far behind one inning in? Kuroda seemed flustered by home plate umpire Gerry Davis’ reduced strike zone, and we should hope that this outing was a product of Kuroda’ frustration rather than a sign of injury or, more likely, his continuing road woes. Since winning his first MLB road game, incidentally in San Diego, Kuroda has lost his last six decisions away from Dodger Stadium.
Oh, and one last group deserving of some blame: Joe Torre and the coaching staff. Yes, I know there have been significant losses, starting with Don Mattingly before the season and continuing on with Furcal, Garciaparra, Jason Schmidt, Tony Abreu, Yhency Brazoban and even Andruw Jones. But at some point, shouldn’t the coaching staff be responsible for this mess? The offensive numbers are misleading; while the Dodgers are around fifth in average and on-base percentage, they are 11th in walks, 12th in runs, 14th in sacrifice flies, last in homers and last in extra-base hits. Quite simply, they aren’t scoring enough runs to support a pitching staff that is usually respectable, and they almost never can dig themselves out of an early hole.
The most telling number, however, for Torre and his staff must be this: at this point last year the Dodgers were 38-28 instead of 31-35, and tied for first in the NL West. Somewhere, Grady Little must be smiling. (He probably isn’t quite sure why he’s smiling, but still.)
