Roberts Working His Way Up

The question started popping up when leadoff batter Dave Roberts’ batting average dropped to .216 last Sunday. Would the Dodgers be better off with shortstop Cesar Izturis hitting first, Marquis Grissom batting second and playing center field and Roberts on the bench?

Manager Jim Tracy stressed that 50 at-bats was too early to judge Roberts, that he “wasn’t ready to pull the trigger on something like that this quickly.” Those may have been just the words to soothe Roberts, a center fielder who is in his ninth professional season but first as a big league starter.

Roberts was batting .236 with a .311 on-base percentage starting a weekend series against the Chicago Cubs, but after doubling and walking four times in the Dodgers’ 10-0 win Friday, he is batting .246 with a .368 on-base percentage.

The Dodgers’ game against the Cubs at Wrigley Field was rained out Saturday and will be made up as part of a 10 a.m. doubleheader today, when Roberts will have another chance to reward his manager’s faith in him.

“When you have the head of the ship in your corner giving you words of encouragement, it alleviates a lot of pressure,” Roberts said.

Roberts hasn’t exactly driven the ball lately--his first-inning double Friday was a grounder poked down the right-field line--but he may have gained just as much confidence from his four walks Friday as he would have from four singles.

“For me, a four-walk game might even be better than a four-hit game because it means I’m seeing seven, eight, nine pitches an at-bat,” Roberts said. “When you can do that and get on base, it’s a great thing.”

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Andy Ashby was scheduled to start Saturday’s game and Kazuhisa Ishii today’s game, but Tracy flip-flopped the rotation for today’s doubleheader. Ishii, the Japanese left-hander, will start Game 1 and Ashby will start the second game.

“The reason is we have a guy [Ashby] coming back from [elbow] surgery,” Tracy said. “The trainers worked on him [Saturday, preparing him for the game] and they’ll have to do it again [today]. This gives him a little more time physically and mentally to prepare himself.”

Doubleheaders can be taxing on bullpens, but the Dodger relief corps is in excellent shape, thanks to Odalis Perez’s complete-game one-hitter Friday.

“We haven’t had a bullpen guy take a jacket off for two days,” Tracy said. “We have long relievers, situational relievers, short relievers. We have all our weapons in place and another day off Monday. We’re in better position than we were [Friday] because of the complete game.”

Left-hander Omar Daal, who has made two starts in place of injured right-hander Kevin Brown, will also be available in relief today because it appears he’ll be back in the bullpen Tuesday.

Brown threw 90 pitches Saturday, taking a nine-minute break after the first 40 pitches to simulate game-like conditions, and reported no stiffness or pain in his elbow. There was minimal residual swelling in the elbow, but that shouldn’t prevent him from coming off the disabled list and starting Tuesday night against Cincinnati.

Daal threw six innings Wednesday night, giving up one run on five hits in a 5-1 victory, and has had three days rest going into today’s doubleheader. He could throw three or four innings in relief if needed.

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As Tracy thought more about Perez’s performance Friday, when the 23-year-old left-hander faced the minimum 27 batters and came within one bad-hop infield single of pitching a perfect game, it occurred to him that “it ranked right up there as one of the best games” in Wrigley Field’s long history.

It also may have cemented Perez’s reputation as one of the game’s rising young pitching stars and fueled even higher expectations for his future.

“This guy is a pitcher, he’s polished,” Tracy said. “If he has a good idea of what he’s doing at age 23 and is working on polishing the polish, that equates to potentially a very good career, to being the ace of someone’s staff.”

Perez’s fastball tops out at about 91 mph, so he’s not overpowering, but he has a nice slider and changeup, he’s not afraid to pitch inside, and he has consistently worked ahead in counts.

“Strike one is a beautiful thing, not just for Odalis but for everyone on our staff,” Tracy said. “It opens up so many avenues for a pitcher if you have a repertoire to offer opposing hitters. You can’t pitch from behind and succeed in the big leagues. You may be able to get by, but you won’t succeed.”

TODAY

GAME 1

DODGERS’

KAZUHISA ISHII

(4-0, 3.57 ERA)

vs.

CUBS’

JUAN CRUZ

(0-4, 2.14 ERA)

GAME 2

DODGERS’

ANDY ASHBY

(1-2, 3.91 ERA)

vs.

CUBS’

JASON BERE

(1-2, 7.27 ERA)

Wrigley Field, Chicago, 10 a.m. PDT

TV--Channel 13 (first game only).

Radio--KXTA (1150), KWKW (1330).

Update--Dodger pitchers have held opponents to a .216 batting average, the lowest in the National League, and they rank third in the NL with a 2.99 ERA. The Dodgers also rank second in the league behind Florida with a .985 fielding percentage.