Brewer 8-Ball Sinks Dodgers

From the time their teams break camp in March to the time they clinch a playoff spot or are eliminated from contention in August or September, the same mantra is repeated in managers’ offices throughout the country: “Play for today. Don’t worry about tomorrow.”

Had Jim Tracy heeded that advice, perhaps the Dodgers wouldn’t have been shell-shocked Tuesday night, when they blew a five-run lead by allowing the worst team in baseball to score eight runs in the seventh inning, as the Milwaukee Brewers scored a stunning 8-6 victory before 15,209 in Miller Park.

Pinch-hitter Tyler Houston and left fielder Geoff Jenkins hit three-run home runs off Dodger reliever Giovanni Carrara in the seventh, obliterating a Dodger lead that was built on the strength of struggling right fielder Shawn Green’s two-homer game and sustained by ace right-hander Kevin Brown’s strong start.

Houston and Jenkins both bat from the left side, and Carrara is right-handed. Tracy, the Dodger manager, had one of baseball’s most effective left-handers in the bullpen in Omar Daal, who is 4-0 with a 1.03 earned-run average and has held opponents to a .127 average.

But Daal didn’t even begin warming up until Jenkins’ rally-capping, 430-foot bomb, his eighth career homer against the Dodgers, landed in the upper deck in right field. The reason: Tracy thought he might need Daal to pitch in long relief of struggling right-hander Hideo Nomo today or injured left-hander Kazuhisa Ishii on Thursday.

“When you really think about it, I’m sitting here and kicking myself for the fact that I didn’t use [Daal] today,” Tracy said. “

Victory seemed all but certain for the Dodgers after Green ripped a 420-foot homer to right-center field in the third inning, ending a string of 91 at-bats without a home run, Dave Roberts homered in the fourth and Green homered again in the seventh for a 5-0 lead.

But Brown appeared to tire in the seventh, giving up Jenkins’ leadoff double, Mark Loretta’s bloop single, Luis Lopez’s RBI fielder’s choice, which cut the lead to 5-1, and walking Paul Bako with his 106th pitch.

Houston was announced as a pinch-hitter, and Tracy summoned Carrara, who entered with a 2.17 ERA in 20 appearances. Houston sent a 1-0 pitch over the wall in right, trimming the Dodger lead to 5-4.

Alex Sanchez flied to right, but former Dodger Eric Young drew a walk. Jeffrey Hammonds lined a double to the gap in left-center, the ball nicking off lunging outfielder Brian Jordan’s glove, to score Young for a 5-5 tie.

Cleanup batter Richie Sexson, after fouling a ball into the upper deck, drew a walk. Up stepped Jenkins, who has one hit in six career at-bats against Daal, and still, Tracy stuck with Carrara.

Right-hander Paul Quantrill was also an option, but Tracy thought Carrara’s cut fastballs, which are supposed to break onto the hands of left-handed hitters, would be more effective against the low-ball hitting Jenkins than Quantrill’s sinking fastballs.

But Carrara’s next cutter didn’t cut it. Jenkins smashed Carrara’s first pitch far over the wall in right for an 8-5 lead, capping the Brewers’ biggest inning of the season. It was also the most runs the Dodgers have given up in an inning since the Cubs put up a pair of eight-spots in the seventh and eighth innings of a 20-1 victory over the Dodgers on May 5, 2001.

“It was one of those days, when everything I threw up there, they hit,” Carrara said. “I didn’t get tired. My arm felt great.”

Jordan homered in the eighth, trimming Milwaukee’s lead to 8-6, and the Dodgers put two on with one out in the ninth, but Paul Lo Duca bounced into a game-ending, 5-4-3 double play.

“You can’t find a much harder game to lose than that,” Green said. “The last thought in your mind is that the win was in jeopardy.”

The next thought in Dodger minds is tonight’s game against the Brewers, which takes on added significance.

“We’ll see what we’re made of [tonight],” Lo Duca said. “We need to bounce back. I know it’s early in the season, but we need to play well [tonight], because these are the kinds of games that can send you into a tailspin.”