Dodgers first baseman James Loney almost got to pitch

As the game extended into extra innings and Wednesday night was about to turn into Thursday morning, James Loney said he wondered if this could be his chance.

Projected by most teams as a pitcher when the Dodgers drafted him out of high school, Loney has always joked about his desire to step on a major league mound.

“I thought about it a little bit,” Loney said.

It wasn’t to be.

Russ Ortiz, the last pitcher available out of the Dodgers’ bullpen, gave up two runs in the top of the 11th inning, dooming the Dodgers to a 9-7 defeat against the Arizona Diamondbacks. With the four-hour and 57-minute game ending at 12:07 a.m., The Times was unable to report the final score in its Thursday print editions.

The game was sent into extra innings on a run-scoring double by Casey Blake in the bottom of the ninth.

The Dodgers exhausted seven relievers, including knuckleballer Charlie Haeger, who is scheduled to start against the San Francisco Giants on Saturday. The only reliever who didn’t pitch was Jeff Weaver and that was because he unavailable after having appeared in six of the previous seven games.

Manager Joe Torre said that had the Dodgers tied the score in the 11th inning and sent it into the 12th, he would have surveyed the position players to see if any of them would volunteer to pitch.

But jokes aside, would Torre have let a young and promising player like Loney risk blowing out his arm on the mound?

“That would be the danger,” Torre said.

Puzzling

The reason behind Chad Billingsley’s fourth-inning meltdown Wednesday night remained a mystery to Torre.

Billingsley threw three shutout innings, only to be pounded for six runs over the next 2 2/3. He threw only 45 pitches in the first three innings, then threw 71 the rest of the way.

Torre said he would be sure to remind Billingsley of what he did right in his first start of the season, a victory in Pittsburgh.

“I’m the one who likes to remind people of positive things,” Torre said.

Robinson honored

Every uniformed Dodger and Diamondback wore No. 42 to celebrate the 63rd anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s breaking baseball’s color barrier.

The Dodgers will wear the No. 42 jerseys again for the opening game of the three-game series against the Giants, who were off Thursday and wouldn’t get to take part in the tribute unless they did so Friday.

“If we win the next two games, we’re going to wear 42 for the rest of the year,” Torre said.

Frank Robinson, Don Newcombe, Lou Johnson, Tommy Davis, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Tom Lasorda and Frank McCourt took part in a pregame ceremony to honor Jackie Robinson.

Short hops

Blake DeWitt was out of the lineup, as Torre explained that though he was taking excellent at-bats, he wasn’t making solid contact. Plus, DeWitt was 0 for 10 with five strikeouts in his career against Diamondbacks starter Dan Haren. Jamey Carroll started in place of DeWitt… Hong-Chih Kuo started his minor league rehabilitation assignment by striking out two batters in a perfect inning for Class-A Inland Empire. … Brad Ausmus underwent surgery to repair a herniated disk in his back.

dylan.hernandez@latimes.com