Extra, Extra: Foiled Again

Jim Tracy has been known to tap-dance carefully around subjects he is uncomfortable with, but the Dodger manager did not mince words after Wednesday night’s stunning 2-1, 11-inning loss to the Florida Marlins before 12,323 at Pro Player Stadium.

“The best choice of words,” Tracy said, “would be gut-wrenching.”

How else could he describe a game in which the Dodgers scratched across the tying run in the ninth inning, only to lose when .190-hitting reserve Mike Mordecai, who entered in the ninth as a pinch-runner for cleanup batter Mike Lowell, hit a walk-off homer off reliever Victor Alvarez with two out in the 11th?

And one in which emergency starter Wilson Alvarez was brilliant pitching on three days’ rest, limiting the Marlins to one run and four hits in six innings, only to have the Dodgers fail to score after putting runners on first and second and no outs in the fifth and sixth innings?

And the Dodger bullpen, after pitching 7 2/3 innings of Tuesday night’s 5-4, 13-inning loss, provided 4 2/3 more innings of scoreless relief Wednesday night before one of only two pitchers remaining, a rookie with all of 13 big-league innings under his belt, succumbed to Mordecai in the 11th?

“I haven’t looked, but it doesn’t seem like there’s a whole lot of bullets left down there,” pitching coach Jim Colborn said of the bullpen. “We’re going to try to score 25 runs [today] and have one of our position players finish it up on the mound.”

Colborn can only hope Dodger batters pitch better than they hit in the clutch. The Dodgers, who fell 4 1/2 games behind Florida in the National League wild-card race, went 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position Wednesday and were hitless in five extra-inning at-bats.

In their last three extra-inning games -- a 2-1, 15-inning loss to Arizona on July 25, Tuesday night’s loss to the Marlins and Wednesday’s defeat -- the Dodgers are 0 for 38 with six walks and eight strikeouts in extra innings.

“It doesn’t seem like we have the same type of at-bats in extra innings as we do in the first nine,” center fielder Dave Roberts said. “I don’t know if we’re trying too hard, but the at-bats aren’t as good.”

The Dodgers got a great ninth-inning at-bat from Paul Lo Duca, who came off the bench and lined a double into the left-field corner off Marlin right-hander Ugueth Urbina to score Jeromy Burnitz from first base for a 1-1 tie.

But the Marlins got a better at-bat -- and a familiar one -- from Mordecai in the 11th when the utility infielder drove a 2-and-2 changeup over the left-field wall for his second home run of the season.

On July 23, Mordecai pinch-ran for Lowell in regulation and hit a game-winning home run in the 12th inning of a 5-4 win over Atlanta. Wednesday night, he produced a similar result, filling the power void left by Lowell, who ranks fourth in the NL with 31 home runs.

“We were just setting the stage for our home run-hitting third baseman,” joked Marlin Manager Jack McKeon.

The last thing the Dodgers needed was another extra-inning game to put more strain on the bullpen, but the Dodger starters are also under duress. Andy Ashby was scheduled to pitch Wednesday but was scratched because of severe flu-like symptoms, so the Dodgers started Wilson Alvarez on short rest.

Ashby also won’t be able to pitch today, so Tracy will start Kevin Brown, who missed most of 2002 because of back and elbow problems, on three days’ rest in the series finale against the Marlins.

The Dodgers hope Ashby recovers in time to take Brown’s spot Friday against Chicago.

“If Ashby can’t go Friday,” Tracy said, “we’ll just have to go with someone else.”

How desperate are the Dodgers? Tracy said before Wednesday’s game he would use Eric Gagne, who pitched two innings Tuesday, only in a closing situation; he brought Gagne into a tie game in the bottom of the ninth Wednesday.

He hoped to avoid using Paul Shuey after the right-hander threw 1 2/3 innings and gave up the game-winning homer to Ramon Castro on Tuesday night; Shuey was summoned to pitch the 10th Wednesday.

“There’s not more you can ask a pitching staff to do,” Tracy said. “We had our chances, more chances than [the Marlins] had, and we couldn’t come up with that hit.”

The Dodgers had scored 46 runs in their previous 10 games but looked like the pre-August Dodgers on Wednesday, hitting lazy fly balls, weak ground balls and into double plays. They have scored one run or have been shut out in 30 games this season.

Wilson Alvarez gave the Dodgers more than they could have hoped for, striking out a season-high eight. His only blemish came in the third, when he gave up a double to Alex Gonzalez and an RBI single to Juan Pierre.

The other Alvarez was not as fortunate: Young Victor was not the victor Wednesday because he gave up a home run “in the unlikeliest of situations,” Colborn said. “The next time Mordecai pinch-runs for Lowell, we’re going to pitch more carefully to him.”