Park Back With Thud

Dodger officials are confident that the ballclub’s starting pitching rotation will eventually perform as expected.

Presumably they mean this season.

That remained in doubt Thursday night during an 8-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates at Dodger Stadium.

Chan Ho Park became the latest member of the group to falter before a disgruntled crowd of 30,888. The right-hander struggled and was booed often in his first outing after serving a seven-game suspension for hitting and kicking Angel pitcher Tim Belcher during a game June 5.

Park acknowledged that his attack on Belcher was primarily caused by his frustration about his poor performance this season. But the No. 2 starter isn’t alone in the Dodgers’ underachieving rotation.

Park (4-4) was pounded for 11 hits and charged with seven earned runs in 6 1/3 innings. His earned-run average increased from 4.84 to 5.26.

So much for a triumphant return.

“It was tough not pitching for a long time,” said Park, who went 11 days between starts. “I thought I did good for six innings, but it was tough for me in the seventh inning.”

Pittsburgh scored five runs in the seventh to break the game open while chasing Park and taking a 7-1 lead. The Pirates had 14 hits against three Dodger pitchers.

“I was hoping to get another inning out of him, but he just ran out of gas,” Manager Davey Johnson said of Park. “I would have liked to [remove Park after six], but I’ve had to use my bullpen a lot lately. I wanted to give him a chance to win.”

The Dodgers (30-34) dropped four games under .500 with their eighth loss in 10 games. The fourth-place Dodgers also fell nine games behind the idle Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League West.

The Pirates (34-30) took two of three in the series. They also swept the Dodgers in a three-game series at Three Rivers Stadium earlier this month.

Again, facing the Dodgers was exactly what a struggling opposing starter needed. Pirate right-hander Kris Benson (5-5) was hit hard in losing during his previous two outings before Thursday.

Benson had little trouble with the Dodgers.

He gave up five hits and three runs (one earned) in 6 1/3 strong innings. The Dodgers had only three singles in the first six innings, and only one runner advanced to third. Pirate closer Mike Williams struck out the side in the ninth to nail down the victory for Benson.

As bad as the Dodger offense has been at times, General Manager Kevin Malone did not build the team on that. The Dodgers’ foundation is their starting rotation, and the foundation has been shaky. At best.

Pirate outfielder Brant Brown tagged Park for two home runs--Nos. 4 and 5--marking his first multihomer game of the season and third of his career.

“The first one was a fastball and the second one was a changeup,” Park said. “I missed up [in the strike zone] with the first pitch, but the second one was in a good location.”

Of course, hitting a homer against Park isn’t a big deal these days.

Park moved into the team lead Thursday by giving up his 15th and 16th homers, one more than Ismael Valdes. Park has already matched a major league record by giving up four grand slams this season, and he became the first pitcher this century to give up two grand slams in an inning.

No wonder the guy is frustrated.

The Pirates took a 1-0 lead in the third on Brown’s first homer. Brown led off the inning a shot to center on a 2-and-0 count.

The Dodgers pulled even in the bottom of the inning.

Adrian Beltre led off with a single and wound up on third because of the lackadaisical play of Pittsburgh left fielder Al Martin. The ball went between Martin’s legs and rolled to the wall, enabling Beltre to reach third standing.

With one out, Park drove in Beltre with a sacrifice fly to tie the score at 1-1. That was it for the Dodger offense until Eric Karros and Devon White had run-scoring doubles in the seventh.