Dodgers’ Hole Gets Deeper

What faint and fading hope the Dodgers have of winning the National League West would be boosted by an occasional victory against a team in their division. Of course, the way the Dodgers are playing, especially against NL West foes, they might be better off focusing on the wild card.

No team wants to concede the division title before August, but the Dodgers lost to the Colorado Rockies, 4-1, before 27,243 in Dodger Stadium Monday night and trail the San Francisco Giants by 10 1/2 games.

They trail the Philadelphia Phillies by only 4 1/2 games in the wild-card race, a deficit that seems more manageable.

In 1995, the Seattle Mariners trailed the Angels by 13 games on Aug. 3. They essentially conceded the division, publicly stating they were focusing on the wild card, and wound up staging one of baseball’s most dramatic comebacks, forging a first-place tie and defeating the Angels in a one-game playoff for the AL West title.

The Dodgers’ division deficit is almost as daunting as the one the Mariners faced in 1995. Wouldn’t focusing on the wild card improve their mental outlook on the playoff race?

“We’ve seen teams come back from 10 and 11 games down, we realize that has been done,” Dodger Manager Jim Tracy said, refusing to concede. “We should still think along those lines.”

But if the Dodgers are to keep even their wild-card hopes alive, they must find a way to beat NL West opponents. With Monday night’s loss, the Dodgers fell to 16-27 against teams in their division.

They are 10-6 against the NL East and 14-7 against the NL Central, which is great, but 33 of their remaining 64 games are against the NL West, so the road to the wild card will go through San Francisco, Arizona, Colorado and San Diego.

“We need to shore things up in our own division,” Tracy said. “It’s important to turn the tables, because [16-27] is not going to get it done. If we can turn that around, it will give us a chance to be playing in October.”

If not, the Dodgers, whose offense fell flat again Monday night, will be doing what they have done every October for the last six years: watching the playoffs on television.

“When you feel like you have a club that is so close to being very good for an extended period of time, it’s frustrating,” Tracy said. “You don’t see many games where we’re overmatched. We just got beat.”

After averaging 6.1 runs and slugging 14 home runs in their last nine games, the Dodgers managed only six hits and one run -- Shawn Green’s fourth-inning home run -- off Colorado starter Denny Stark and two relievers Monday night.

They threatened in the ninth when Paul Lo Duca and Jeromy Burnitz singled with one out off closer Justin Speier.

But Adrian Beltre, who was hitting .389 with three doubles, two homers and 10 runs batted in during his previous nine games, grounded into a fielder’s choice, and David Ross, with left-handed-hitting Daryle Ward on the bench, struck out against the right-handed Speier to end the game.

Dodger right-hander Andy Ashby, who took the loss, ran into immediate trouble, as Colorado shortstop Tony Womack opened the game with a single and stole second, and Ronnie Belliard reached on an infield single, Womack taking third.

Todd Helton grounded out for a run, and Larry Walker’s RBI infield single made it 2-0.

Green’s 11th homer of the season, a laser over the right-field wall, pulled the Dodgers to within 2-1 in the fourth, but the Rockies padded their lead on Bobby Estalella’s solo home run off Ashby in the fifth and Chris Stynes’ RBI fielder’s choice in the sixth to make it 4-1.

The damage could have been a lot worse had Ashby not coaxed a bases-loaded, inning-ending double-play grounder from Preston Wilson in the fifth and Rickey Henderson not made a nice running catch of Womack’s foul ball with runners on second and third to end the sixth.

“We didn’t hit enough to win,” Tracy said.

“When you get one run, the only way to win is if the other team gets zero.”