Roberts Changes Dodgers’ Luck

The umpires blew calls that cost them games, their hard-hit balls were caught, marginal outfielders robbed them with spectacular defensive plays, they couldn’t catch a break ... blah, blah, blah, Dodger center fielder Dave Roberts was beginning to think.

“I’m done saying we’re snake-bit, we’re unlucky, and all that stuff,” Roberts said. “The bottom line is we’ve had opportunities to win every single game [since the All-Star break], and we just haven’t found a way.

“You can say all you want about things not going your way, but at the end of the year we’ll either be in the playoffs or out. No one is going to feel sorry for us. When you’re struggling, you’re almost looking for bad things to happen. I want to turn it around and make our own breaks.”

Roberts took his words to heart Tuesday night, sparking a two-run, tiebreaking rally with a walk and stolen base to lead off the seventh inning in the Dodgers’ 8-6 victory over the San Diego Padres before 25,680 in Qualcomm Stadium.

On a day the Dodgers hoped to bolster their sagging offense with the acquisition of utility player Tyler Houston in a trade with Milwaukee, Paul Lo Duca and Adrian Beltre each homered, and the Dodgers, who had lost 11 of 13 games, scored their most runs since July 2.

Manager Jim Tracy exhausted almost all of his bullpen, using five relievers behind starter Andy Ashby, and closer Eric Gagne nailed down the victory by striking out three of four batters in the ninth for his 35th save.

“This was the result of us putting pressure on them the whole game--their pitchers had to work for every out,” Roberts said. “The formula is simple. We hit some big home runs tonight, but we’re not a home run-hitting team. We have to have good at-bats all through the order.”

Roberts, who is batting .294 with a .366 on-base percentage, and Alex Cora had two simple, yet exceptional at-bats in the seventh. After the Dodgers blew a four-run lead in the sixth, Roberts, with the score tied, 6-6, opened the seventh with a walk off Padre reliever Jeremy Fikac and stole second, his 28th stolen base, ranking him second in the National League.

Cora dropped a perfect sacrifice bunt to the left side, but Padre third baseman Phil Nevin’s throw sailed over Ryan Klesko’s head for an error, allowing Roberts to score and Cora to take second.

Cora took third on Lo Duca’s groundout and, after Shawn Green was intentionally walked, Eric Karros hit a sacrifice fly to center off reliever Tom Davey to give the Dodgers an 8-6 lead.

“With what Dave Roberts has done for us all year long ... it’s safe to say he’s been out there,” Tracy said. “This guy has been on base, he’s stealing bases, getting big hits, driving in big runs.”

Roberts had some company Tuesday night. The Dodgers, who scored 29 runs in the previous 12 games, an average of 2.4 runs a game, scored three runs in the third to take a 3-2 lead.

Ashby singled with one out, Cora singled with two out, and Lo Duca, mired in a one-for-25 slump, hit a towering, three-run home run to left, the Dodgers’ first home run in seven games, Lo Duca’s sixth homer of the season and his first with runners on base.

Beltre’s two-out solo homer in the fourth made it 4-2, and the Dodgers increased it to 6-2 in the fifth when Lo Duca doubled with two out, Green singled and Karros hit a two-run double to right-center to snap his streak of 12 games without a run batted in.

But Ashby and relievers Jesse Orosco and Giovanni Carrara couldn’t hold it. Pinch-hitter Gene Kingsale’s two-run triple and Ramon Vazquez’s RBI groundout in the sixth pulled San Diego within 6-5, and Ron Gant, who made two spectacular defensive plays to thwart the Dodgers Monday night, grounded an RBI single to right off Carrara to tie the score, 6-6.

But the Dodgers, who moved into second place in the NL West but remained 2 1/2 games behind Arizona, recovered to mount a counter-strike in the seventh.

“We were in an offensive rut--we were setting up innings but not finishing them,” Tracy said. “But we did a very good job of sustaining an attack tonight with good consecutive at-bats.”