Valdes Looks Sharp Again, but Dodgers Are Punchless

Ismael Valdes listened to the adulation all spring. He smiled at the lofty predictions. He was apprised of the expectations.

The Dodgers and the rest of baseball not only anticipated Valdes to perhaps become a 20-game winner, but also emerge as a Cy Young candidate and ace of the staff.

Valdes certainly has done everything in his power to live up to his promise, but once again was left trying to preserve his sanity after the Dodgers’ 5-0 loss Friday to the Florida Marlins at Joe Robbie Stadium.

“It’s tough now,” Valdes said. “You go to the mound and want to help the team. But when you don’t win, even if you do your job but the team loses, it’s frustrating.

“I’ve got to keep fighting.”

Valdes pitched seven shutout innings, lowering his earned-run average to 2.33, but watched from the bench as the Marlins scored five runs in the eighth inning off reliever Darren Hall.

After four starts in which he has hasn’t given up more than three runs and has pitched at least six innings, Valdes is 0-1. The Dodgers have scored only six runs while he has been in games. More painful, they are batting .192 in his starts, and only .091 with a total of five hits in his last two starts.

If the Dodgers didn’t know any better, they’d swear that Valdes has been reincarnated as Tom Candiotti, the Dodger veteran who had the worst run support in the National League last season.

“I can sympathize, believe me, but there’s nothing you can do about it,” Candiotti said. “He’s in a bad rut right now, a real bad rut. You’ve got to make sure it doesn’t get to you. . . . It will drive you crazy.”

Valdes’ teammates certainly didn’t give him a prayer of scoring Friday. They produced only three singles off Marlin starter Pat Rapp and the bullpen, and two were infield hits by Todd Hollandsworth. They hit only six balls out of the infield the entire game.

The Dodgers, who scored a season-high 11 runs in their previous game, have been limited to two or fewer runs in six of 17 games. The Dodgers are batting .229, and have been struggling so badly that the only team in the league with worse offensive numbers are the Marlins.

The Dodgers’ futile offense was at least matched by the Marlins through the first seven innings until Valdes was removed for pinch-hitter Milt Thompson in the eighth. Hall replaced Valdes in the eighth, and with two outs and pinch-runner Jesus Tavarez on first base, the Dodgers hardly seemed threatened.

Terry Pendleton, batting .188 at the time, hit a line drive that bounced in front of right fielder Raul Mondesi, caromed off his glove and rolled past him. Marlin third base Coach Cookie Rojas, realizing his team’s offensive ineptitude, gambled and waved Tavarez home. Mondesi, suddenly rattled, missed the cutoff man on his throw home. When the ball bounced to catcher Mike Piazza, Tavarez’s left hand was sliding across home plate with the only run the Marlins would need.

“I just missed the ball,” Mondesi said. “It froze me a little bit.”

Hall, who had not pitched since Sunday, fell apart. Greg Colbrunn hit a double into the right-field corner that rolled under Mondesi’s glove, scoring Pendleton from second base. Hall then walked Charles Johnson, and two pitches later, surrendered a three-run homer to No. 8 batter Kyle Abbott for a 5-0 lead.