Bullpen Fabulous, Offense Faulty

The Dodgers may have the finest bullpen in all of the land, continuing a phenomenal streak that even they can’t explain, but a flaw finally has been detected.

The Dodger bullpen can go an entire season without being scored on, but unless the Dodgers start giving it a lead to protect, it won’t do a bit of good.

The Dodger offense sputtered again Tuesday, this time in a 5-3 loss to the New York Mets in front of 27,318 at Dodger Stadium.

This is an offense that created high expectations with its potential, but in the first week it has only resurrected painful memories of the last few years. The Dodgers are batting only .223, scoring three or fewer runs in five of their eight games.

It’s not as if they’re being shut down by household names, either. This night, they were limited to five hits by Bobby Jones, a pitcher who hasn’t won more than 12 games in a season. They had only one hit more than Met first baseman John Olerud produced by himself.

“We’re not hitting together as a team yet,” Dodger Manager Bill Russell said. “We have five wins, but we could be swinging the bats a lot better and be more consistent.

“We have a lot of talent coming to the plate, but we’re not bunching the hits together.

“There’s too much talent in there for this to go too long.”

The Dodgers indeed have a 5-3 record with one game left on this homestand, but with the way the pitching staff has performed, they could easily be undefeated. This was the first game in which the Dodger gave up more than three runs.

“I think this is the best bullpen we’ve ever had,” Russell said, “and they did their job again tonight. But we’ve got to give them some runs.”

The Dodger bullpen extended its streak to 30 2/3 innings in which it has not allowed an earned run. The bullpen has yielded only 11 hits while striking out 25 batters.

Yet, once the Mets jumped to a 4-1 lead after starter Ismael Valdes yielded six hits and four runs in the first three innings, the Dodgers could not recover. The Dodgers closed to within 4-3 in the fourth inning after Greg Gagne’s two-out, two-run triple, but failed to reach second base again.

“[Jones] didn’t have his good stuff,” Met Manager Bobby Valentine said, inflicting more pain, “it was a gutty performance out there.”

It was no consolation to Russell, who may shuffle the lineup tonight. Russell is considering putting Todd Hollandsworth in the No. 2 hole and dropping rookie second baseman Wilton Guerrero to sixth or seventh. Guerrero, who’s in a three-for-22 slump, is batting .200.

Guerrero, who has walked only twice in 35 plate appearances, said he has been too impatient. He is swinging at too many pitches out of the strike zone.

“I’ve just got to be more relaxed,” Guerrero said.

The Mets, who failed to score in the final nine innings of Monday’s 3-2, 15-inning Dodger victory, ended their slump in the first inning.

Lance Johnson opened with a single to right, stole second with one out, and then scored on John Olerud’s single to center, just beating center fielder Brett Butler’s throw home. Olerud, who took second on the throw, went to third on Todd Hundley’s single to right and scored on Bernard Gilkey’s groundout.

Just like that, the Dodgers were trailing, 2-0, for the fifth consecutive game.

Raul Mondesi came right back in the bottom of the first and hit a solo home run over the center-field fence, his third homer and seventh RBI.

The Mets continued their ononslaught against Valdes in the third. Rey Ordonez hit a one-out single to left and went to third on Olerud’s double, the second of his four hits. Ordonez scored on Hundley’s groundout to shortstop Greg Gagne, and Olerud scored on Gilkey’s single to right for a 4-1 lead.

Valdes settled down, allowing only one single to the next 13 batters he faced, but it simply was too late.