With No Playoff Date Yet, It’s OK to Be Desperate

There are no rules in baseball. There are suggestions, trends, statistical probabilities, historical happenings.

Ultimately it is up to a manager relying on numbers, averages, his heart, his gut, to pitch to Barry Bonds or to walk him. To bring in his closer, Eric Gagne, when his team is trailing by a run late in the game.

The manager who is confident in himself doesn’t listen to the suggestions from those who don’t matter. The coach who is comfortable with his talent doesn’t care what anybody writes or says.

When Bonds doubled in a couple of runs for the Giants on Tuesday night, the easy second-guess became: Don’t pitch to Bonds.

When Dodger closer Gagne went into Tuesday’s game, with his team behind by a run, after having pitched the previous two days, with two more critical games ahead against the Giants, the easy second-guess became: Don’t pitch Gagne if it’s not for the save.

Pitching coach Jim Colburn doesn’t like second-guessing. Not by media, not by fans. If you want to criticize the use of Gagne, Colburn says, please call him up before the game and give him your advice. “If you’re right enough times,” Colburn says, his hands folded across his chest, his eyes narrowed, “then you can get hired for this job.”

When Dodger Manager Jim Tracy is asked about Gagne and how much is too much, Tracy has a defiant answer. “Those guys [the Giants] used their guy [Robb Nen] for three innings one night.”

And you think of what your mom used to say: “If the boy next door jumped out the window, would you jump out the window too?”

Before Wednesday’s game against the Giants, Gagne had pitched three days in a row and thrown 69 pitches (“Is it 69?” Gagne asks. “Someone else said it was 64.”) It was 69. Gagne says he feels good, that he feels strong, that he would absolutely, positively tell his manager and his coach if his arm felt tired. “I’m about winning,” Gagne says, “and if I felt like I would hurt my team, I would not pitch.”

But when Gagne went into Tuesday’s game, when the Dodgers were behind, 5-4, and after the Dodgers had been behind all night, that smacking sound you heard was Dodger fans hitting their foreheads with their palms. Dodger fans think they know desperation when they see it. They think they saw it Tuesday night.

What if there would be a save situation Wednesday night? What if the Dodgers were to fashion a one-run lead going into the ninth inning?

“I’m ready, not a problem,” Gagne says.

“That’s my job,” Colburn says, “to make sure my pitchers are ready. That’s what I’m paid to do.”

“This is the time when you go with the guys who got you here,” Tracy says. “This is what we’ve been working for. This is why I’ve done what I’ve done with Eric all year.”

Tracy was adamant. Gagne was not wasted Tuesday, he said, and Gagne would be ready Wednesday, at least for an inning. Twice before this season, Gagne had pitched four straight games, four days in a row. On the first occasion, back in June, Gagne threw 36 pitches on the first three days. On the second occasion, last month, Gagne threw 42 pitches on the first three days.

But those occasions were not against the team that’s a game ahead in the race for a final playoff spot. Those occasions did not come with only 12, 11, 10 games left in the season.

If using Gagne Tuesday night smacks of desperation, if it seems things are falling apart for the Dodgers, if it appears Tracy lacks confidence in his other relief pitchers, is that a surprise?

The Dodger staff can’t be stretched any thinner. The Dodgers need at least a split of this four-game series, which would still leave them a game behind the Giants.

These Dodger-Giant games are lasting four hours, are being played well after 11, for a reason. Because every swing, every step, every pitch, every substitution, could mean the difference. Between winning and losing. Between playing baseball or playing golf in October. Between a triumphant overcoming of adversity or a surrendering to injuries, to a thin bench, a thin pitching staff, to not enough talent, to too many doubts.

So the one thing Tracy can’t do right now is care what anybody else thinks.

He pitched to Bonds on Tuesday and it hurt the Dodgers. He didn’t pitch to Bonds the first three times Bonds came up on Wednesday and that hurt the Dodgers too. Bonds led off the second and third innings with walks and the Giants scored runs in both of those innings. But in the seventh, Tracy had Paul Shuey pitch to Bonds. Bonds struck out. The crowd roared. The other Dodgers stood a little taller.

The players pay attention to this. Bonds hits on Tuesday. Writers say that Bonds should be walked, walked, walked. Tom Lasorda, who should know better than to second-guess, says on television that “I would never let Bonds beat me,” which sounds as if Tom thinks Bonds should be walked, walked, walked. And Bonds is walked, walked, walked. Until he gets a chance to swing. Then he’s out.

How much Gagne pitches the rest of the season, there’s no right answer. And it’s not always a bad thing to seem desperate and to take desperate measures. Not when you’re desperate.

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