Padres Keep Dodgers Sinking

Fred McGriff was so baffled by a Brian Lawrence sinker in the sixth inning of Saturday night’s game against the San Diego Padres that the moment the Dodger first baseman completed his swing and miss, he asked home-plate umpire Mike Winters to check the baseball.

“Everything he throws moves, so he checked to see if there was some kind of stuff on the ball,” Dodger center fielder Dave Roberts said of McGriff. “But he was throwing that way all night long. You have to tip your hat to him.”

After a quick examination, Winters threw the ball back to the mound, a mere pause in Lawrence’s mastery of the Dodgers. The 26-year-old Lawrence gave up four hits in eight shutout innings, striking out four and walking two, to lead the Padres to a 3-0 victory before 36,005 in Qualcomm Stadium.

In handing Hideo Nomo his first loss in almost nine months and the Dodgers their third straight loss in this four-game series, Lawrence improved to 5-2 with a 1.97 earned-run average in 14 career games against the Dodgers.

“It was typical Brian Lawrence against the Dodgers,” Roberts said. “He changed speeds, threw a lot of ground balls. We couldn’t put any hits together, let alone get many hits. We’ve got to find a way to win [today].”

The Padres lost one of their best hitters, Phil Nevin, for the season and their All-Star closer, Trevor Hoffman, for at least half a season, because of shoulder injuries; they lost 96 games in 2002 and are projected by some to lose 100 games this season.

But it is the Padres who will be going for a four-game sweep today, and the Dodgers, projected contenders in the National League West, who have scored three runs in three games and are already 3 1/2 games behind the San Francisco Giants less than a week into the season.

Don’t bother telling the Dodgers about San Diego’s woes; to them, the Padres might as well be the New York Yankees. Since 1996, the Dodgers are 45-58 against the Padres and have lost five of the last seven season series to their division rivals to the south.

“It’s unbelievable, you almost can’t explain it,” Dodger left fielder Brian Jordan said. “You know you can beat these guys, but somehow, some way, they find a way to beat us, and we don’t find a way to beat them.”

The Dodgers had the right man on the mound Saturday night. Nomo went 14-1 with a 3.24 ERA in his last 26 starts of 2002 and opened 2003 with a four-hit shutout of Arizona last Monday.

But instead of career win No. 100, Nomo wound up with his first loss since July 16 against the St. Louis Cardinals, giving up three runs and seven hits in seven innings, striking out eight and walking four.

Four singles, two of which didn’t leave the infield, led to two Padre runs in the third inning, and a sudden loss of control cost Nomo in the sixth.

Ramon Vazquez walked, took second on a grounder, third on a pitch that slipped out of Nomo’s hand and went all the way to the screen, and home when Nomo’s split-fingered fastball bounced by catcher Paul Lo Duca for another wild pitch.

The Dodgers’ offensive frustrations culminated in the sixth, when Shawn Green singled and tried to score on Jordan’s double to the wall in left. A solid relay home by Vazquez nailed Green, the second time this season the Dodgers have had a runner thrown out at home. Both times it was Green.

The Dodgers also had opportunities in the first three innings -- two Padre errors put runners on first and third in the first, but Jordan struck out; the Dodgers failed to score after Adrian Beltre’s double and Alex Cora’s walk to open the second, and with two on in the third, McGriff bounced into an inning-ending, 4-6-3 double play.

“They gave us five outs in the first, we had runners on first and second with no outs in the second, first and second with one out in the third and got no runs,” Manager Jim Tracy said. “After that, Lawrence settled in, and when he settles in against us, things become very difficult.”