Perez Escalates Dodger Woes

By Jason Reid

July 21, 2003 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

Add struggling starter Odalis Perez to a long list of problems facing the Dodgers as they sink in the National League West.

The St. Louis Cardinals rocked Perez in one of his worst outings of the season Sunday night to highlight their 10-7 victory over the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium.

Perez (6-8) gave up a career-high four home runs, didn’t make it through the fourth inning and was booed off the mound by many in a crowd of 46,110.

What happened?

“You’ve got to ask Odalis that,” said Manager Jim Tracy, whose team dropped a season-high 9 1/2 games behind the first-place San Francisco Giants in the division. “I’m wondering a little bit myself.”

At this point, Perez said he’s probably not the same pitcher who won 15 games last season, which isn’t exactly surprising news.

“Maybe I’m not the pitcher I was last year,” said Perez, who has come under fire in the clubhouse for his comments about the offense, the front office and his conduct with umpires.

“But everybody goes through bad times. Maybe I’m going through a bad slump.”

The Dodgers rallied and almost overcame Perez’s poor pitching with five homers among 12 hits -- including Jeromy Burnitz’s first multihomer game as a Dodger. They tied the score at 5-5 in the third on Burnitz’s two-run homer, and rallied again after the Cardinals’ three-run fourth against Perez.

Adrian Beltre’s two-run homer in the eighth pulled the Dodgers to within 8-7, but Mike Matheny’s two-out, two-RBI single in the ninth against Paul Quantrill provided a three-run cushion for Cardinal closer Jason Isringhausen.

Isringhausen gave up a one-out single to Rickey Henderson, who earlier extended his major league record for leadoff homers to 81, but struck out Alex Cora and got Shawn Green on a game-ending grounder for his seventh save and second in as many games.

The Dodgers (51-46) and Cardinals (51-47) split the four-game series, combining for nine homers in the finale. That established a record for the most homers hit in a game at Dodger Stadium, breaking the previous record of eight.

Scott Rolen (No. 20) and Eduardo Perez (No. 7) each hit two-run homers as the Cardinals raced to a 4-0 lead in the first. Albert Pujols (No. 29) and starter Woody Williams (No. 1) also connected against Perez.

Henderson hit his second with the Dodgers, and Burnitz collected his first two homers with the team and Nos. 19 and 20 overall. David Ross hit his sixth and Beltre completed the home-run derby with his eighth.

There was so much offense that Williams (13-3) won despite giving up 10 hits and being charged with six runs in seven-plus innings. Williams joined Russ Ortiz of the Atlanta Braves as the NL’s only 13-game winners.

“The ball was flying early,” said Williams, who threw 113 pitches. “It’s a freak thing, but there were a lot of mistakes made.”

The Dodgers did their best to help Perez, but he’s in a bad place and they are too.

“We’re obviously not in the position we hoped to be in,” said Green, still struggling in a season-long slump. “We split this series, but it feels worse because we lost the last two.”

No one felt worse than Perez.

The left-hander had his second shortest outing of the season, lasting only 3 2/3 innings. He gave up six hits and eight runs (seven earned).

Perez’s earned-run average increased from 4.25 to 4.65. In four career starts against the Cardinals, Perez has a 9.64 ERA.

“I would have to say it was a poor outing,” said Perez, who also struggled in his previous start against the Cardinals but got a victory.

“They are the best hitting team in the National League right now. I was trying to throw the pitches in the perfect spot, but I made mistakes and had to pay for them.”

There’s more going on with Perez than bad pitches.

“It just isn’t quite all together right now with him,” pitching coach Jim Colborn said. “Obviously, there’s a lot of ... he didn’t have it today.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Launching Pad

A Dodger Stadium-record nine home runs were hit during Sunday’s St. Louis-Dodger game. The previous record was set on May 25, 1979, when the Dodgers outhomered Cincinnati, 7-1:

*--* ST. LOUIS FIRST

*--*

1 Scott Rolen hits two-run home run.

2 Eduardo Perez hits two-run home run.

*--* DODGER FIRST

*--*

3 Rickey Henderson hits solo home run.

*--* DODGER SECOND

*--*

4 Jeromy Burnitz hits solo home run.

5 David Ross hits solo home run.

*--* DODGER THIRD