Time to Learn Where Dodger Road Leads

The Dodgers find themselves in a difficult position because they have stumbled through August with the National League wild-card berth at stake.

They are supposedly among six teams in competition for the postseason invitation, although they haven’t inspired much confidence in their frustrated fans. They are running out of time, and they acknowledge that they must be successful on their seven-game trip against Pittsburgh, Florida and Atlanta that begins tonight at Three Rivers Stadium.

“Now is the time,” right fielder Gary Sheffield said. “Every series on this trip is big because, realistically, we have to win every series we play the rest of the way.

“That’s the way we have to look at it if we’re going to get back in the race with the way we’ve been playing. No one is going to help us, so we have to get greedy.”

The Dodgers begin the trip fourth in the wild-card race, six games behind the front-running Chicago Cubs And that despite having gone 5-11 in August to this point.

“We haven’t done what we needed to do so far, that’s pretty obvious,” second baseman Eric Young said. “You look at our record [this month], and that’s not the way a team battling to make the playoffs should be playing.

“We go [4-5] on the homestand when we knew we had a big road trip right around the corner. That’s not the way to take care of business.”

They have played particularly poorly away from Dodger Stadium.

The Dodgers have lost five of six road games in August and were swept in a three-game series by the payroll-slashing Montreal Expos that ended their most recent trip. The Dodgers are 28-36 on the road.

They are 7-3 overall against the Pirates, but only 3-4 against the inexperienced Marlins and 1-5 against the East Division-leading Braves. The Dodgers were also swept by Atlanta at Turner Field during a three-game series in May.

So the sense of urgency is understandable.

“As far as I’m concerned, our backs are totally against the wall,” outfielder Trenidad Hubbard said. “This is the toughest trip of the year because of what we’re facing right now.

“I can’t speak for anyone else, but if you go around the clubhouse, I don’t think anyone will tell you different.”

That outlook is consensus.

“We have to be ready to play from the first game,” closer Jeff Shaw said. “We have to be ready for a dogfight, because everyone knows the position we’re in right now and they’re definitely not going to help us.

“Before, we could say that there was still enough time ahead to turn things around. Well, we’ve only got 40 or so [38] games left to go. We don’t have that luxury now.”

For the trip to be successful, the Dodgers said they must return to Los Angeles with momentum.

“The bottom line is, we’ve got to put a streak together,” third baseman Bobby Bonilla said. “It seems like we keep talking about it, but we still haven’t done it.

“It’s always harder to do that on the road, but we have no choice. We haven’t given ourselves many choices.”

The Dodgers finish the trip with three games at Atlanta, where they have lost four in succession over two seasons. The Braves are tied for the second-best home record in the league.

“We know Atlanta is out there at the end, but we can’t worry about that,” Sheffield said. “We have to focus on each game in Pittsburgh, and then each game in Florida. That’s just the situation.”

And a difficult one at that.