Playoff Brush Sorely Missing Stroke of Green

The Dodger season sits in limbo a little while longer, spinning around and going nowhere like that Union 76 ball beyond the Dodger Stadium center-field wall.

There’s no more margin for error and nothing left to do but hope. At this point one Dodger loss or one San Francisco Giant victory wipes out the Dodgers’ bid for a wild-card spot in the playoffs.

The Dodgers staved off elimination for another day with a home run by Paul Lo Duca in the bottom of the 10th inning for a 1-0 victory over the San Diego Padres on Friday night.

I’ll give the Dodgers this: They aren’t going out like chumps. They could have locked up like Kevin Brown’s back. But they’re still giving us a reason to pay attention.

The least the Dodgers can do is make life tough on the San Francisco Giants. Hang around long enough to force the Giants to make a cross-country flight to Atlanta and play a make-up game against the Braves.

That will happen only if the Dodgers are within a half-game of the Giants, which is to say if the Dodgers win their next two games and the Giants lose their last two.

There’s only one thing missing from the Dodgers’ efforts: a little something-something from Shawn Green.

It’s the stretch drive in the playoff run and Green has only four home runs and nine RBIs in September. He didn’t have an extra-base hit from Sept. 13 until Sept. 26, and he drove in only four runs during that stretch.

Green’s soundtrack is different these days.

The long blasts off his bat used to prompt “Oooooohs,” “Aaaaahs,” and “Whoas!” from the crowd at Dodger Stadium.

Lately it’s more likely to be an “Ohhhh,” a sigh of resignation as another fly ball settles into an outfielder’s glove. There are even a few boos when he grounds out and strands baserunners.

Green carried the Dodgers at times this summer, leading them to the top of the National League West in June.

When the summer was gone, so was Green. He turned into a Stevie Wonder lyric: “Where were you when I needed you?”

He won’t blame the cooler air.

“April and September are a lot tougher here, but if you hit it good it’s going to be a home run,” he said.

“I’ve hit in spurts all year. And I go through stretches were I haven’t hit them.

“I’ve been getting hits. Obviously I’d like to hit more home runs, but you take the hits where you can get the hits.”

Green, who is hitting over .300 this month, hasn’t been the focal point of the Dodger story. The slide has primarily been a result of pitchers getting hurt and pitchers getting shelled. But Green’s struggles are a recurring theme.

You can predict the explanations: He isn’t getting anything to hit.

“Look at the number of times they passed on him and said, ‘Hey, Brian Jordan’s beating us tonight,’ ” Dodger Manager Jim Tracy said. “I mean, the offerings aren’t real attractive to where you can do a whole lot with anything. You have to be patient and wait it out.”

And that isn’t Green’s strong suit.

“He’s an aggressive hitter,” said Jordan, who bats behind Green. “They know he’s not like the Mark McGwire, Chipper Jones that take the walks and be patient. He wants to go out there and do it.

“They’re not going to pitch to him. They’re going to make him get himself out.”

Barry Bonds once explained his pitiful postseason numbers by saying that pitchers are going to work their way around the most dangerous hitters in the playoffs, so they really don’t get a chance to do damage. There’s only one thing that undermines that theory, and the Green explanations: Bonds’ 2002 season.

The guy sees two or three good pitches a game, if he’s lucky, and he still has 45 home runs, 108 RBIs and a batting average hovering near .370. He has 20 RBIs in September.

The difference?

“Barry’s in a league of his own,” Tracy said.

As for pitchers’ avoidance of Green, “We just have to live with it, deal with it, and other guys as a result of it have an opportunity,” Tracy said.

For the Giants, it has been Jeff Kent feasting on fat pitches batting ahead of Bonds in the lineup, while Benito Santiago has been taking advantage of the RBI opportunities that come with hitting behind him.

For the Dodgers, Green’s struggles have been somewhat balanced by Jordan taking off. Jordan began Friday night’s game batting .330 with five home runs and 27 RBIs in September.

“This is my month,” Jordan said. “August was [Adrian] Beltre’s month. When Greenie’s hot, he’s hot. When he gets cold, he’s cold.”

Said Green: “I’ve seen some [good pitches], I’m just not in a home run groove right now.”

Last night had the distinct feel of an autumn cooling trend. Green flied to right to end the sixth inning, the final part of a disappointing sequence that saw the Dodgers waste a leadoff double by Omar Daal (yes, Omar Daal).

Green also grounded out to the pitcher with runners on first and second and one out in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Lo Duca’s homer ensured that it wouldn’t be remembered as the final wasted opportunity of 2002 and gave Tracy another night to praise his ballclub.

“You can’t ask anything more of the guys in that room,” Tracy said.

Sure it isn’t too late to put in a request for some big hits by Green?

*

J.A. Adande can be reached at: j.a.adande@latimes.com.