Pointing Fingers Is for Losers

None of this all-for-one stuff with the Dodgers. None of that cliche talk about being in this together.

Do you believe in finger-pointing? Then you bleed Dodger blue for sure.

If you love the game hide and seek if the rules are all about hiding and no seeking, then, my friend, the Dodgers want you.

The Dodgers lost to the Mets, 6-5, Sunday at Dodger Stadium. According to Manager Jim Tracy, pitching coach Jim Colborn and catcher Chad Kreuter, it was all the fault of pitcher Chan Ho Park.

“Chan Ho wasn’t very good today,” Tracy said.

“It was a poor outing and poor effort,” Colborn said.

“We’re not getting a No. 1-type performance from him,” Kreuter said.

Can’t tell you how Chan Ho feels about all this. He did not, according to Dodger personnel, have anything to say. He was not available, he was not talking, he could not tell us if he had the answer to the question: What do Kevin Brown, Darren Dreifort, Andy Ashby and Park have in common?

Answer: None of the pitchers have won a game this month for the Dodgers. Brown, Dreifort and Ashby are hurt. Park is just hurting his team if you believe his teammates.

“He walks the first guy [Matt Lawton] today; he throws a [batting practice] fastball to the next guy [Edgardo Alfonzo]; he gives up a hit to [Mike] Piazza,” Kreuter said. “After that his body English was slumping, you could tell by his shoulders how he was feeling, and that rubbed off on the team.”

Harsh? Listen to Tracy.

“We were just flat and I felt like the tone was set by the demeanor of our starting pitcher early in the game,” he said. “It spread to the point where the ballclub was flat. To sit here and say someone is going to go out and win every time, no, I don’t do that. But I expect intensity.”

Tracy said he saw in Park a starting pitcher who was blase, who felt no urgency to throw strikes or challenge hitters, who didn’t grit his teeth and try his hardest.

“It was not the performance of a No. 1 starter,” Tracy said.

And here’s the problem. Park’s agent, Scott Boras, might seek after this season a contract that would pay the pitcher $20 million a year.

You’d better be a fierce competitor every game you play if you want a contract like that. Or at least you’d better make sure your teammates think you are a fierce competitor.

This was such a big game. The Dodgers can’t afford to lose series like this, to lesser teams, at home, when a wild-card playoff spot is still available.

And be very sure about one thing--it’s time to quit thinking about the Dodgers winning the National League West.

They’re 51/2 games out and fading. Arizona is getting stronger. The Dodgers are getting weaker. So you could say that it was a good thing the Diamondbacks beat the Cubs on Sunday. The Dodgers are better off gaining ground on the Cubs for the wild-card spot than being hopeful about catching Arizona.

Kreuter was happy to point out that Park walked the leadoff hitter in four of the five innings he pitched. Kreuter was eager to say that something must be going on “externally” because Park’s head didn’t seem in the game. “I don’t know what it is, but we’d better find out,” Kreuter said.

“You’ll have to ask him [what’s wrong],” Colborn said.

But no one could ask. It would be nice for a $10-million pitcher [his salary this season] to be courageous enough to answer for his bad days.

This is the Dodgers, though.

On Saturday night, when Eric Karros couldn’t find it in his repertoire, with his team losing by a run in the bottom of the ninth inning and a man on first, to bunt that runner into scoring position, Karros wasn’t around to answer questions either. Nor was he on Sunday after Karros wasn’t in the starting lineup and after he struck out on three pitches in the bottom of the ninth pinch-hitting.

“The Disappeared.”

That’s the Dodgers, in more ways than one. They’re evaporating in the August heat. Was it only two weeks ago when they were leading the division? Was that real? That was back when Park was the ace and seemed worth $20 million a year.

But here’s the problem with piling the blame on one person. It’s not fair.

Should Park blame Marquis Grissom for looking at strike three in the fourth inning when Gary Sheffield was on second base? Or Paul Lo Duca for looking at strike three in the sixth inning with Shawn Green on first? One of the runs off Park in the first inning was unearned because Gary Sheffield turned a single into a double because he couldn’t field the bouncing ball. One unearned run in a one-run loss. Is there blame for Sheffield?

Blame is for losers.

“As a catcher I was disappointed in what we had out there,” Kreuter said. “The coaching staff was disappointed in what we had out there today.”

Kreuter was speaking, again, of Park. But he should have been speaking for himself and the rest of the Dodgers. Park was bad. He wasn’t the only one. Park didn’t give a No. 1 effort. He wasn’t the only one.

And how do things get better? If all the blame goes to Park for this loss, then apparently nobody else needs to do anything better, right?

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Diane Pucin can be reached at diane.pucin@latimes.com