Here’s a Dodger Sacrifice

It was a game of little consequence.

It was watched by a paltry crowd that appeared to be about half of the announced figure of 36,498.

It was such a lackluster afternoon that a swipe of second base by Colorado’s Todd Helton in the eighth inning wasn’t even ruled a steal because of “defensive indifference,” according to the official scorer.

Luckily for the Dodgers, the one person who most wanted to be at Dodger Stadium, the one who made the greatest sacrifice to be there, was their starting pitcher.

Luke Prokopec, an Australian, could have been in Sydney right now, pitching for the Australian national team in the Olympics. But when the Dodgers purchased his contract from double-A San Antonio in the first week of September he decided to come to the big leagues . . . and skip the big festival back home.

Sure, he has felt some pangs of regret now that the Games are here and instead of marching into the stadium for the opening ceremony he was watching them with a bunch of Australians called together by a member of the local consulate.

But for his dedication to the task at hand, it was only fitting that he received his first major league victory Sunday, pitching six strong innings in the Dodgers’ 12-6 victory over the Rockies. And it appears the Dodgers might be rewarded with a quality young pitcher.

Prokopec gave up five hits and two runs Sunday. He pitched three shutout innings in a relief appearance during his debut against Pittsburgh on Sept. 4 and he gave up only one earned run in 4 1/3 innings in his first start last Tuesday at Arizona.

“You still feel disappointed a little bit in your heart,” he said when asked about missing out on the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. “But every single one of the guys on the [national] team I’ve talked to since I’ve come up, they all [said], ‘I would have done exactly the same thing.’ Because just about every player on the Australian team is trying to do the same thing as me: working their butt off in the minor leagues and trying to make it to the big leagues. This is what everyone strives for. I chose what I wanted to do, and I’m having fun.”

Prokopec did get a taste of Australia before the game, when Nancy Bea Hefley played “Waltzing Matilda” on the Dodger Stadium organ as Prokopec threw his warmup pitches.

“It was kind of cool to hear a little Aussie music before I got to pitch,” Prokopec said. “I lost my concentration for a little bit, but it was kind of a cool thing to do.”

He must have regained it by game time, because he didn’t yield a hit in the first two innings.

The Rockies loaded the bases against him with none out in the fourth inning (“I think he was a little pumped up,” Dodger Manager Davey Johnson said), but he escaped with minimal damage, giving up one run on a sacrifice fly and then finishing the inning with a double play.

Double plays in the second and third innings also helped his cause.

He left after the sixth inning because his pitch count reached 83, which was high enough for Johnson.

Besides, Johnson said, “I wanted to also look at that other Australian.”

That would be Jeff Williams, who relieved Prokopec for the second time this season, and only the second time in major league history that one Australian pitcher has replaced another.

(Williams didn’t fare as well. He gave up three hits, a walk and four runs one-third of an inning.)

Prokopec said this won’t be such a rare occasion in the future.

“The next three years there’s going to be a lot of young Aussies popping their heads up in the major leagues,” he said.

He said the sport is very popular at the T-ball level back home, but it suffers in competition with other games such as Australian rules football and cricket as the kids grow older, because the kids crave more involvement than just four at-bats and a couple of fielding chances.

Prokopec also ran cross-country and threw the javelin. But for him, baseball and its variations were a family affair. His father ran a softball team that included Luke’s mother and two sisters. In one game the family hit back-to-back-to-back-to-back home runs.

Prokopec has only been pitching since 1997. He entered the Dodgers’ minor-league system as an outfielder, but never hit better than the .244 average he posted his first season.

“He was very talented,” said Dodger first base coach John Shelby, who was Prokopec’s manager at Savannah. “Probably one of the best defensive outfielders I’ve seen in our minor-league organization. He could swing the bat, but he was just struggling offensively.”

One game, after Shelby had run through his pitching staff during a blowout, he asked Prokopec to take the mound. A couple of Dodger instructors were there, clocked Prokopec in the 90s on the radar gun, and decided to make the experiment permanent.

“Evidently, it went well,” Shelby said.

Evidently. You could tell by the lingering smell of beer in Prokopec’s locker, doused with suds by his teammates to celebrate his first victory.

“It was a little bit too much of a waste of beer,” Prokopec said.

But not a bad decision for Prokopec to stick around. If you’re going to make a choice for your career, might as well get it off to a good start.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: j.a.adande@latimes.com.