Dodgers Are Left in a Terrible State

They started the week with the San Diego Padres, the cost-cutting, small-town, big-chip-on-their-sunburned-shoulders Padres.

They will end it with the San Francisco Giants, the smug, pretentious, Bobby Thomson-got-lucky Giants.

Understudy teams. Dodger wannabes. Ballpark tacos and sweaters in July. Roseanne Barr and Jim Barr.

I shrug off the Padres and scorn the Giants.

Which is what makes this week so hard.

Because I’m also jealous of them.

During a 6-3 loss Thursday, I’m watching the Dodgers being swept in a three-game series by the Padres as casually as if they were clearing crumbs from a table.

I’m watching the Dodgers running through signs from third-base coach Glenn Hoffman, who couldn’t have made his gestures any more apparent if they were obscene.

I’m watching a different sort of consistency in the bullpen, with back-to-back home runs given up by back-to-back relievers.

For the first time since the Padres showed up in Southern California looking like a plate of scrambled eggs and chorizo, I’m wondering:

Why can’t the Dodgers be more like the Padres?

Why can’t the Dodgers score three runs in one inning with more grounders than base hits?

Why can’t the Dodgers start a rally with a perfect hit-and-run, as the Padres did in that fourth, with John Vander Wal deftly putting a grounder into the hole vacated by shortstop Tripp Cromer?

Al Campanis once wrote a book called “The Dodger Way.”

They might want to borrow it from the Padres sometime.

Like many of you, I’m also going to watch the Dodgers host the Giants this weekend. And for the first time since Joe Morgan got as lucky as Bobby Thomson, I’m going to wonder:

Why can’t the Dodgers be more like the Giants?

They are in first place, yet 12 players on their team have more at-bats then Barry Bonds.

Their third-leading RBI man is Rich Aurilia. Quick, Dodger fans, what position does he play?

Their second-leading run scorer is Marvin Benard. Quick, Dodger fans, where in the heck did he come from?

The answers are shortstop, and I have no idea.

Watching the Dodgers and their two opponents this week is like watching a comfortable guy fighting a desperate one.

The Dodgers have the new gloves, the fancy robe, the padded stool.

The Padres and Giants have the hunger.

Each day, the Dodgers seemingly possess one good punch.

If it misses--if Kevin Brown struggles or if Raul Mondesi leaves the bases loaded or if Alan Mills can’t hold a lead--then they are bouncing off their back pockets.

Each night, the Padres and Giants throw numerous punches, from a variety of angles, and always seemingly have one left.

The Dodgers scored first in every game in this three-game series against a team that included several players who belong in the minor leagues.

But each lead meant as much as that name on that blue and gray shirt, which today means nothing.

“It cuts deep,” said Davey Johnson, and even he has no idea how deep.

The new Dodger owners hired a hotshot designer to stock their house with the finest furnishings. But they forgot to inspect the foundation.

Something is still rotten in the Dodger foundation. It is the same casualness that has caused this team to crumble by the end of each of the last 10 seasons.

Fox didn’t notice it. Few baseball observers noticed it. And those who did assumed that the new atmosphere would fix it.

It has been the other way around. The casualness has hurt the new atmosphere. The weakness is still there. And until it is fixed--with more trades or rearrangements--the sinking will continue.

For all their past problems, the Padres and Giants have foundations.

They have ethics that come from Managers Bruce Bochy and Dusty Baker, one with the baritone voice and the other with the toothpick, fixtures who understand and are understood.

Davey Johnson is still too new. He looks like a perplexed guy walking around a department story dressing room, trying on this and that, fretting and fussing and hoping that something will look good.

The Padres and Giants also have leaders among players who are not their best. Every team needs these players. Street leaders.

Among the Padres, one of them is Vander Wal, a former pinch-hitting star. Among the Giant leaders are Jeff Kent and J.T. Snow, who struggled elsewhere before shining here.

And the Dodgers?

They have nobody. Johnson needs somebody. Everyone who has ever loved the Dodgers needs somebody.

“I still like these players, I still think this group can win the division, we’re still in the thick of it,” General Manager Kevin Malone said.

As the floor shifted beneath him.

Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address:bill.plaschke@latimes.com.