Dodger Win Stops Short of History

Leave it to the Dodgers to turn a possible watershed moment -- a near no-hitter by pitcher Odalis Perez, and a 2-0 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks that stopped a seven-game losing streak -- into an ugly controversy pitting players against fans and right fielder Shawn Green against the world. Or so it seemed.

Perez, who ripped his teammates and the Dodger front office after last Sunday’s loss in Anaheim, saying the team needed to “start producing or get some other players to produce,” was brilliant Saturday, limiting a hot Arizona club to three singles in eight shutout innings, striking out five and walking none.

Mike Kinkade (RBI single) and David Ross (RBI double) provided the key hits in a two-run fourth inning, Perez (5-7) retired pinch-hitter Carlos Baerga on a ground ball with two on to end the eighth, and closer Eric Gagne struck out cleanup batter Luis Gonzalez looking with a runner on first to end the ninth for his 30th save.

But Green provided a flash point for debate when he chose not to dive for Shea Hillenbrand’s flare to shallow right to open the eighth, a single that appeared to drop about 10 feet in front of Green and broke up Perez’s no-hit bid.

A Dodger Stadium crowd of 38,956 roundly booed Green after the play, and those boos grew even louder when Green, a fan favorite for most of his four years in Los Angeles, came to bat in the bottom of the eighth.

“I thought that was pathetic,” said Paul Lo Duca, who made two superb defensive plays at first base in the seventh inning to preserve Perez’s no-hitter. “I was right there, and he had no chance to get the ball. If he dives and misses, [Hillenbrand] goes to second base.

“The fans who played baseball before didn’t boo. The ones who haven’t played before booed. I was upset about that. With all [Green] has done for this community, that was not right.... He’s my teammate, and I’ll back him up any day of the week, but that was ridiculous.”

Green, batting .248 and mired in a season-long slump, said he “would have dove if I thought I had a chance” to catch the ball. Manager Jim Tracy said Green would have “come up 20 feet short” had he dived for the ball, and Ross, the Dodger catcher, said he thought Green had “no chance” to make the catch.

“For the fans to boo him over that, he didn’t deserve that,” Ross said. “Records are great, but we’re trying to win games. Say he dives and doesn’t get it, the ball gets past him and the guy goes to second base, maybe third. He scores, and it’s a 2-1 game. That’s not smart baseball. I thought it was a good play. For him to dive meaninglessly just to show effort, that’s stupid.”

Perez was embroiled in a controversy of his own last week, upsetting teammates and Dodger executives with his comments after his third frustrating loss in as many starts. Perez gave up only seven earned runs in 19 innings, but the Dodgers scored a total of two runs in those three starts.

Lo Duca chastised Perez, saying, “If you have a problem with something, you should talk to the team and not pop off in the paper; if you’re going to pop off in the paper, then you’ve got no guts.”

Lo Duca and several teammates spoke to Perez privately about his comments, as did General Manager Dan Evans, and Tracy said Perez made amends.

“You have to realize, I wasn’t trying to hurt no one,” Perez said. “It was for the benefit of the team. We weren’t hitting, we weren’t scoring runs, and if we don’t score, we’re not going to win.... Maybe some took it personally, maybe some respected me for what I said and some didn’t. But this is a team here. We’re brothers, and I don’t want to be an enemy on this team.”

Perez was an ally and an asset Saturday, spotting his fastball on both corners, mixing in an occasional slider and fading his changeup away from right-handed batters. Of the left-hander’s 111 pitches, 81 were strikes.

Through seven innings, only two Diamondbacks reached base, Alex Cintron on Adrian Beltre’s first-inning error and Gonzalez on Perez’s third-strike wild pitch in the fourth.

Perez, who took perfect games into the seventh inning twice in 2002, got Robby Hammock to bounce into a 6-4-3 double play after Hillenbrand’s eighth-inning single, and Quinton McCracken and Chad Moeller followed with hard singles to left.

But Baerga, batting for Arizona pitcher Elmer Dessens, hit Perez’s first pitch to shortstop Cesar Izturis, who fielded the ball and tossed to second for the force out.

“In his own way, Perez made a statement today,” Tracy said. “He mended fences with a lot of teammates, and they were respectful of that.”

Said Ross: “He basically put us on his back today and got us the win.”

Whether Green can get a few thousand fans off his back remains to be seen.