For the Dodgers, It Adds Up Right

Use a calculator. Use a computer. Use a mathematician, an impartial baseball analyst or a devoted Dodger fan.

No matter how you crunch the numbers or how you assess the situation, the conclusion will be the same: The Dodgers are a two-man team.

Sure, they have some of the best pitching in the league. But unless Mike Piazza and Eric Karros are hitting, the wins and losses will be about equal.

Case in point: Tuesday night at Three Rivers Stadium. Dodger right-hander Pedro Astacio, in command of all three of his pitches, beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-1, in front of 11,824.

Astacio (6-7) had the Pirates shut out for 8 2/3 innings before surrendering an RBI double to Jason Kendall. Todd Worrell came on to get the save, his 28th, striking out Jermaine Allensworth after walking the potential tying run.

Astacio had been moved up a day in the rotation when scheduled starter Ramon Martinez was forced to pitch in relief over the weekend, but it didn’t seem to bother Astacio, who sailed through despite working on a hot, humid night.

Mixing in an effective curve with his fastball and changeup, Astacio constantly pitched himself out of potential trouble despite giving up 10 hits.

But none of it would have mattered had it not been for Piazza and Karros, who drove in all the Dodger runs, boosting the club to a 59-54 mark and enabling it to remain one game behind the NL West-leading San Diego Padres, who also won Tuesday night.

Piazza hit his 27th home run with Delino DeShields on board in the fourth inning, a shot of more than 400 feet that easily cleared the wall in right-center field. Karros singled home Chad Curtis in the sixth.

“At the beginning of the season, we expected the offense to reach a certain level,” Karros said, “and obviously it hasn’t gotten there. I could sit here and lie and say we are going to score seven runs a game. It [the offense] is what it is.”

It is Piazza and Karros.

The two players have accounted for 23 of the team’s last 39 home runs or 59%. They have driven in 146 of the team’s 442 RBI, or 33%.

And when one of them, especially Piazza, slumps, watch out.

Piazza hadn’t hit a home run since July 17. Since then, the Dodgers were 8-8 heading into Tuesday. He had driven in one run in the previous 11 games and the Dodgers were 6-5 over that span. He was only two for 24 in the recently-completed homestand and the Dodgers went 3-3.

Get the idea?

Many players get into slumps because they try to do too much, but, Piazza explained, his problem was just the opposite.

“When there is nobody on base, you just have to try to get on,” he said. “But in the last few weeks, I was doing too much of that and taking myself out of my rhythm. Every once in a while, you think yourself into a hole. This game will humble you.”

Piazza admitted that he benefited from taking a two-day rest, sitting out Sunday’s game and then enjoying the off day on Monday.

But it’s not easy for him to do so.

“I get stubborn,” he said. “Sometimes, you’ve just got to shut the clock down. This position [catcher] will drive you nuts if you don’t take a day off.”

The Pirates have had a lot of off days lately, but that has nothing to do with the schedule. Tuesday’s night’s loss, their fourth straight and eighth in their past 10 games, lowered their record to 50-63 and lowered the club deeper into the NL Central cellar.

So where do the Dodgers go from here?

“We just have to have other guys step in and pick it up,” Piazza said. “I have to try not to put too much pressure on myself. I’ve been doing that lately. If the main guys are not doing the job, you have to have somebody else step in. It’s not rocket science.”

No, it’s not. A simple calculator tells the story quite adequately.