Dreifort Can’t Hang With Arizona’s Ace

This is what a pitching ace does in the bottom of the seventh inning, when his team is ahead by three runs but the opponent has two men on base and one of its smartest, most dangerous hitters at the plate.

The crowd murmurs. Randy Johnson, intimidator from Arizona, throws a 94 mph fastball. Dodger Shawn Green swings from the top of his shoulders to the tops of his shoes. And misses.

The crowd moans. Johnson throws a 96 mph fastball. Green swings again. His body looks like one of those barber poles, the blue stripes of his Dodger uniform twisted and moving. Green misses again.

The crowd sighs. Johnson tries a slider this time. Green doesn’t swing at ball one. The crowd murmurs again. Johnson throws the slider again. Green can’t take two pitches in a row, not when he can see himself hitting a game-tying home run. Not when his team has started the game five games behind the first-place Arizona Diamondbacks.

Green starts to swing, then wants to stop. He tries to stop. He can’t stop. Green’s bat almost hits the ground but not the ball. It is strike three and the last pitch Johnson will throw, his 124th of the night, his eighth strikeout, his 80th strike.

The Dodgers will lose to the Diamondbacks, 9-2. They will fall six games behind Arizona in the National League West. And Darren Dreifort will have missed a most wonderful opportunity.

Dreifort isn’t supposed to be the Dodger ace. But Dreifort has a nice five-year, $55-million contract. Dreifort has two pitching teammates--Kevin Brown and Andy Ashby--ailing and disabled. For now, then, Dreifort could try to be the ace.

It is only June and there is a wild-card spot up for grabs beside the division title.

But when Dreifort pitched against Johnson on Tuesday night, this was a moment in his career where Dreifort could have changed perceptions, could have made himself a savior, could have earned the kind of wild cheers that daffy-dancing Laker Mark Madsen did just by standing up in the stands.

Madsen is no pitching ace. He is only an enthusiastic rider of Super Shaq’s coattails. Madsen could have ridden almost as far on the 92 mph fastball that Arizona’s Luis Gonzalez hit into the stands against Dreifort in the fifth inning.

The crowd booed and Dreifort hung his head. A half-inning earlier, the Dodgers had cut a 2-0 Diamondback lead to 2-1 on an Eric Karros homer. Momentum for his team flew over the wall with Gonzalez’s homer. Dreifort’s moment was gone.

Dreifort could have pitched as if he was worth every bit of that $55 million. Dreifort could have given the Dodgers a massive boost of energy and confidence. He could have stopped the hurt of the ninth-inning loss his team had suffered against the Angels on Sunday. These crucial little should-have moments in midseason add up to could-have seasons in October.

Dodger Manager Jim Tracy had said before the game that it was important for Dreifort to do well. Doing well was more than hanging on through six innings with your team behind, 5-2. But that’s all Dreifort could give Tracy against Arizona.

Even though Dreifort didn’t give up a run in the first inning, he had to throw 27 pitches to retire the side. The struggle was evident in the way he bit his lip, in the way the sweat dripped from his forehead.

Johnson struggled in the first inning too. Jeff Reboulet and Green singled. Karros walked. But these baserunners didn’t add up to a run scored, a lead taken. It is not an accident that Johnson came into the game with an earned-run average of 1.88 when he was pitching on the road, best in the league. Johnson escapes the first and you figure the best is ahead.

Dreifort gets out of the first and you bite your lip because against Arizona this season he had been 1-2 with an 11.37 ERA and, you figure, after those 27 pitches, the best is not coming.

When he was pulled, Dreifort had given up 10 hits, five runs, two home runs. There were five strikeouts but also a wild pitch. There were boos during the two-run Diamondback second; more in the two-run fifth; lots in the sixth when Steve Finley knocked a ball out of the stadium. That was when the fans lost all patience and the Dodgers seemed to lose hope.

When Dreifort left the game, Johnson toughened up for his big seventh inning. The end of the inning came with that last jerky swing by Green, and Johnson wiped his brow and left the game to his bullpen. He had not been overpowering.

Only two pitches were faster than 94 mph. Johnson had struck out eight but given up six hits. Karros had nearly gotten a second home run in the bottom of the sixth. He hit a fastball up against the wall in the deepest part of center field and Finley had to stretch high to catch it.

What we learned, then, is that the Dodgers won’t have an ace until Brown is sound. And that Dreifort let one of those precious chances fly right out of Dodger Stadium.

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