Dodger Bats Produce Only St. Louis Blues

Maybe it was the 96-degree heat, or the oppressive humidity, or the fact they didn’t arrive at their hotel here until 5:30 a.m. after playing in Phoenix the night before, but the Dodgers, with the exception of pitcher Kazuhisa Ishii, seemed as flat as much of the Midwest terrain Thursday.

Ishii threw one of his best games of the season, giving up three runs and four hits and striking out seven in six pitch-efficient innings, but the offense wilted on a sweltering afternoon, managing one hit in 11 at-bats with runners in scoring position in a 3-2 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals before 39,421 in Busch Stadium.

Rookie right-hander Travis Smith, who moved into the rotation after the stunning death of Darryl Kile on June 22, gave up one run and seven hits in six innings, and second baseman Fernando Vina made a game-saving diving stop in the ninth inning, as St. Louis increased its lead over Cincinnati in the National League Central to three games. The Dodgers’ lead over Arizona in the West fell to 1 1/2 games.

Cardinal center fielder Jim Edmonds slugged his 17th homer of the season in the first inning, left fielder Albert Pujols hit his 19th homer in the fourth, and Tino Martinez’s sixth-inning sacrifice fly was the difference.

Mark Grudzielanek doubled and scored on Marquis Grissom’s two-out infield single in the seventh, pulling the Dodgers within 3-1, and the Dodgers threatened in the ninth off closer Jason Isringhausen when Cesar Izturis singled, Dave Hansen reached on an infield single, and the runners advanced to second and third on Isringhausen’s throwing error.

Grissom followed with a three-hop smash up the middle, but Vina, a Gold Glove Award winner last season, made a backhand, diving stop on the outfield grass and threw to first in time to retire Grissom. Izturis scored on the play, but Hansen had to hold at third, where he remained when Paul Lo Duca lined to right to end the game.

“Vina made a heck of a play or else the game is tied with the winning run on first base,” Dodger Manager Jim Tracy said. “We just came up short.”

Smith, who began 2002 with two innings of major league experience in seven seasons and was recalled from triple-A Memphis on June 27, was not dominant--he struck out two and walked one--but he caught the Dodgers on a good day.

“We were sluggish--you could tell,” Lo Duca said. “When you get in at 6 a.m., there’s going to be a lot of tired guys. That’s not an excuse. But sometimes when you’re tired you swing at bad pitches you don’t normally swing at, or you try to do too much because you’re tired. That’s what we did today.”

Though the humidity created a heat index of 106 degrees, Ishii (11-5) kept his cool. The left-hander needed only 80 pitches to complete six innings, and he pitched far more aggressively early in the count.

“That may have been his best performance since his [major league] debut because he threw strikes and did not create additional opportunities for the opposition,” Tracy said. “We’ll take what we saw from him today on any day of the season.”

Ishii has lost his last three starts, but pitching coach Jim Colborn said Thursday’s game should provide a boost during a well-deserved All-Star break.

“I think the break will be good for him,” Colborn said. “We don’t realize the stress that can build up from moving to another culture. You need breaks to step back and refresh. I’m real proud of the way he’s competed in the first half. In some ways, it’s more than I expected. I thought it might take a while for him to be comfortable here, but it hasn’t.”

Smith, the Cardinal pitcher, is also going through an adjustment period, as are all the Cardinals. As they leave their clubhouse every day, they walk by Kile’s locker, which still contains his game jersey, hat, batting helmet, spikes and batting gloves.

They are still grieving, still trying to come to grips with the loss of their teammate, and no one bears that burden more than Smith, a bespectacled 29-year-old whose boyish looks have earned him the nickname “Harry Potter.”

“You never replace him--it’s impossible,” Smith said of Kile. “I’m here to do what I can do to help the team, whether it’s as a starter, reliever, whatever. These guys have been fabulous. They need someone to pitch, so that’s why I’m here. They want me to help them, and I’m going to do whatever I can.”