BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : DODGERS : Claire Patient on Pitching Woes

Executive Vice President Fred Claire said he isn’t happy with the way things are going in the Dodger bullpen but says he can’t make a change every time things go a little sour.

“We can’t continue at the same pace and expect to be in first place, but at the same token you can’t expect to make a move every time you have had a little bit of a fallout,” Claire said Saturday. “We haven’t done well on this trip but then again, we should have won two of three games in San Diego.”

While Claire said he still wants to give the current bullpen a chance, he said any move he makes would come from within the farm system.

“Greg Hansell has done well and Todd Williams is throwing the ball well,” Claire said. “We brought Ismael (Valdes) and Rudy (Seanez) up to give them an opportunity and that’s the way we want to use the system.”

Since the season began, the Dodgers have used 11 different pitchers in the bullpen, which has blown 16 of 28 save opportunities, converting only 12, the fewest in the league.

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The Dodgers’ batting average with runners in scoring position and fewer than two outs has dropped considerably, and hitting instructor Reggie Smith says the club is well aware of it. The team was batting .337 overall on June 1, but is hitting .243 since then.

“We let them (the players) know we are not being productive, though we try to stay positive, but right now we are in a little bit of a rut,” Smith said. “Every club goes through it about two or three times a year, we had one time earlier when the season started. But it tends to be contagious. Someone is trying to pick up the slack and they try harder than normal, trying to make it happen. We practice hitting with runners in scoring position, and my job is to try to keep them on an even keel, avoiding the peaks and valleys.”

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Eric Karros, sidelined Friday with a sore shoulder that he said wasn’t sore, returned to the lineup Saturday and started at first base. . . . Astro starter Pete Harnisch, recovering from a partial tear of a tendon in his right shoulder, pitched a rehabilitation assignment Saturday for the club’s triple-A team. . . . Steve Finley, recovering from a fractured right hand, played catch and pitched batting practice and is expected to play again in two weeks.

Though he was originally slotted as the leadoff batter, Delino DeShields is batting behind Brett Butler since returning from the disabled list on Monday. With Butler having the highest on-base percentage in the league, it appears he may remain the leadoff batter, at least for now.

“I was a believer at first that Delino should bat leadoff, but right now, the way things are going with the team, Butler should be there,” Smith said. “Delino can still move behind Butler, still take a pitch and still steal a base. With Delino returning, it will allow us to play a different type of game, a running game. It’s no secret there is not an abundance of team speed.”