Teams Felt Like Mother Hubbard

The cupboard was bare in both dugouts.

“We didn’t have anything left,” said Atlanta Manager Bobby Cox on Sunday, the day after the Braves had taken 18 innings to defeat the Dodgers, 5-3.

“We’d used every guy,” said his counterpart, Bill Russell.

That excepted pitchers, though even those were burdened more heavily than usual. In his four innings Saturday, the Dodgers’ Ramon Martinez threw 60 pitches, and he wasn’t going to throw 61.

“I had already talked with Billy,” said pitching coach Dave Wallace. “Ramon was coming out. You want to win the ballgame, but there’s a point where you have to use common sense. He was going on only two days of rest.”

Martinez, due to pitch on Tuesday in Pittsburgh will be pushed back to Wednesday to give him an extra day of rest. Pedro Astacio will be moved up a day, to Tuesday.

There was something of a residual effect Sunday from Saturday’s marathon. The Dodgers didn’t use relievers Mark Guthrie and Darren Dreifort on Saturday, so they were the pitchers on call Sunday.

And Atlanta?

“We’re going to ask for a show of hands to see who can pitch,” said Cox, smiling. “The one good thing we had is that we had a starter [Brad Woodall] in there at the end. We were ready to go nine.”

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Two Dodger scouts were spotted in Philadelphia on Sunday, presumably to look over third baseman Todd Zeile, who can clear waivers at 11 a.m. (PDT) Tuesday and then would, presumably, be available for a deal.

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Tom Candiotti, on the 15-day disabled list because of a bruised elbow suffered when he was hit by a pitch July 20, will pitch in a rehabilitation assignment for Class-A San Bernardino on Tuesday. . . . Think the Dodgers miss Brett Butler? The six players they have used have hit a combined .230 in the leadoff spot, scoring 61 runs in 111 games, with only 40 walks.