Dodgers Crawl to the Finish

This is what September baseball is all about, or so the cliche goes: The Dodgers and Colorado Rockies met Thursday at Dodger Stadium, with the Rockies clinging to a half-game lead over the Dodgers and the games dwindling to a precious few.

Truth in advertising: The Dodgers and Rockies are fighting for third place, not a place in the playoffs. And, to the Dodgers, third place isn’t worth fighting for.

“You never play for third or fourth place,” pitcher Mike Fetters said. “You always try to win a championship.”

There will be no championship for the boys in blue this year. The Dodgers will extend their streak of seasons without a postseason victory to 12.

And, after Thursday’s 5-4 loss to the Rockies, the Dodgers dropped 1 1/2 games behind Colorado in the race for third place in the National League West, a race of no interest to the home team.

“I don’t really concern myself whether we finish in second or third place,” Fetters said. “The only thing that’s acceptable is to win a championship.

“If you don’t win, you want to finish as high as you can, but to finish third is no consolation.”

To the Rockies, a team that lost 90 games last season and finished in last place in the National League West, third place might be nice. To the Angels, a team that lost 92 games amid toxic chemistry and cleaned house in the front office, third place would show progress.

But to the Dodgers, third place would be treading water, and very expensive water at that. When a team starts the season with a $90-million player payroll, championship expectations automatically follow.

“When this club is in the position we are, from a talent standpoint and a financial standpoint, you can’t sit back at the end of the year and say, ‘Hey, we finished in second or third, and that was real nice,’ ” first baseman Eric Karros said.

Are the standings of any interest to the Dodgers?

“Mathematically, we still have a chance,” Karros said. “We’re just trying to win ballgames, one day at a time.”

With 15 games to play, the Dodgers are 13 games out of first place in the NL West and 9 1/2 games behind in the wild-card race. The Rockies could eliminate the Dodgers from the division race this weekend, and the Arizona Diamondbacks could eliminate the Dodgers from wild-card contention early next week.

If third place does not matter, that would leave the Dodgers playing for pride.

“If you can’t motivate yourself for a major league baseball game, you don’t belong here,” Fetters said. “The team pays you for 162 games, not 80 or 100.”

Manager Davey Johnson plans to dedicate the final games to next season, a season he may not be a part of.

“We’re out here trying to get better. We have some young starting pitchers we’re trying to see,” Johnson said.

“Finishing third--or second--doesn’t hold a lot of excitement for me. Correcting some of our deficiencies, and building our system so we have a better chance to win, that’s what it’s all about.”

Those deficiencies include fielding. The Dodgers lead the majors with 131 errors, and they committed three more Thursday.

The youngsters that stole Thursday’s show wore purple, not blue. Colorado’s Brian Rose, acquired in July in a five-player trade that sent Rolando Arrojo and Mike Lansing to the Boston Red Sox, won his third consecutive decision. In the department of curious statistics, Rose has a better earned-run average with the Rockies (4.65) than he did with the Red Sox (6.11).

Rookie catcher Ben Petrick doubled home two runs in the fourth inning, when the Rockies scored three runs to take the lead for good. Dodger starter Chan Ho Park needed 111 pitches over 5 1/3 innings, giving up nine hits and four walks.

Colorado first baseman Todd Helton, whose quest to hit .400 is a rapidly fading memory, went 0 for 4 as his batting average fell to .375.