Will Dodger Hopes Sink in West Again?

The Dodgers have struggled against the National League West, especially down the stretch, the last two seasons.

That could be a problem for them as they pursue the NL wild-card berth, considering that 24 of their last 27 games are against division opponents.

They acknowledge that things must change soon.

“Except for our first three games with Houston [to start September], it’s against the division the rest of the way, so it should be interesting,” center fielder Dave Roberts said. “We haven’t played well against the division, and for us to get into the playoffs, we have to play considerably better.”

The Dodgers are 19-30 against the West, and do not have a winning record against any of the four other teams. The playoffs were within their grasp in 2001 and ’02 but they went 27-27 combined to close those seasons.

This season, first-place San Francisco has won eight of 12 against the third-place Dodgers. The Giants are 5-1 in the teams’ two series at Pacific Bell Park.

The Dodgers have split six games with second-place Arizona, and lost seven of 13 to fourth-place Colorado.

San Diego?

The last-place Padres have frequently frustrated their big-spending Southland neighbors, but they have been particularly bothersome this season. The Dodgers are only 3-9 against the Padres, 1-5 at Qualcomm Stadium.

As the Dodgers begin a three-game series tonight against the Astros at Minute Maid Park, they are among a crowded pack in the wild-card chase, trailing Philadelphia and Florida by 2 1/2 games.

The Dodgers (67-62) ended a 3-3 home stand in disappointment, losing the final two games to the lowly New York Mets.

Although management maintains that the team has not given up hope of winning the division title, despite trailing the Giants by 11 games, players privately acknowledge that they’re focused on the tight wild-card fight.

They have a strange way of showing it, losing to the Mets on Saturday and Sunday nights after taking the field knowing the Phillies had lost.

The Dodgers play host to Colorado this weekend in the final series of the month, the Astros come to Dodger Stadium Sept. 1-3, and the rest is the West.

“We’re 19-30 against the division, and we have all these games left with those guys, so that’s going to be the critical part,” catcher Paul Lo Duca said. “When we were playing bad earlier in the year, we were playing our division. But that obviously can’t happen now, and we can’t make excuses.”

Team officials contend that the poor record is misleading. They point out that the Giants have five one-run victories, four games against the Diamondbacks went to extra innings, and the Rockies are only 2-5 at Dodger Stadium. As for the success of the Padres, the Dodgers are perplexed.

“I wish I had the answer to that,” second baseman Alex Cora said. “We need to get over whatever it is about San Diego.

“We’ve lost eight to San Francisco, but [five] were by one run. A lot of the games with Arizona have been close.”

The bottom line, though, is that when it comes to playing the NL West, the Dodgers haven’t been close to good enough.

“Something happens, whatever, but that needs to change,” pitcher Odalis Perez said. “We play good against the Diamondbacks and good against the Giants, but we don’t win.

“If we want to win, if we really want to go to the playoffs, we have to beat ‘em. That needs to change.”

The Dodgers leave Sept. 4 for an eight-day, seven-game trip to Colorado and Arizona. They finish the season with an eight-game trip to San Diego and San Francisco that includes a makeup game from a rainout April 12.

The other teams bunched in the wild-card scrum -- seven teams are within three games of Philadelphia -- also play mostly within their divisions in September.

“It’s going to be interesting, because the teams that are in it in the East and Central, they also play so many games against each other,” Lo Duca said. “We play so many games against each other in the West, and there are going to be battles. We know each other so well, and we play each other so much.”

The Dodgers figure it for a fight to the finish.

“When other teams play L.A., they play tough,” Perez said. “They want to do it. That’s the way they approach us.”

Manager Jim Tracy wants the Dodgers to maintain a positive approach.

“I told the team we have to reflect back on what happened in ’01 and ‘02,” Tracy said of the Dodgers’ weak finishes against the division. “Not in a negative manner, but in a manner in which we learn from it.

“We have to finish strong. We have to charge to the finish line instead of gradually trying to go across it.”