Dodger Bats Remain Asleep

The silence in the Dodger clubhouse after Saturday’s 1-0 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks before 45,421 in Bank One Ballpark rivaled the silence of Dodger bats the last three games.

The Dodgers got a superb pitching performance from Andy Ashby and made enough stellar defensive plays to “take up 30 minutes of [ESPN’s] Web gems,” Manager Jim Tracy said, and still the Dodgers lost for the second time on this critical make-or-break trip that appears to have already broken their spirit.

Barely a sound emanated from the Dodger locker room afterward, as players showered, dressed, and shuffled out. It could hardly be classified as a stunned silence; Saturday marked the seventh time the Dodgers have been shut out this season and the 25th time they’ve been held to one run or less.

But this was an especially bitter loss to absorb, because the opposing pitcher, Elmer Dessens, knocked in the game’s only run with a fifth-inning triple, and the Dodgers loaded the bases with one out in the seventh inning but couldn’t score, and they loaded the bases with two out in the eighth but couldn’t score in a rally that included a failed sacrifice attempt from their best bunter, Dave Roberts.

“When you have a chance or two, you need to take advantage of it,” said right fielder Shawn Green, who struck out looking with two on in the eighth on an Eddie Oropesa slider that appeared several inches outside. “When you’re not scoring runs, you can’t afford to waste those chances.”

Remember that Dodger team that scored 69 runs and hit 16 home runs during a 13-game stretch from July 8-23? That must have been a mirage, because the Dodgers who turn ordinary pitchers into Cy Young Award candidates, who rank last in the National League in almost every offensive category, are back.

In their last three games, the Dodgers, who remain 4 1/2 games behind Philadelphia in the National League wild-card race, have hit .132 with two runs, seven walks and 29 strikeouts in 35 innings. The Dodgers were 33-15 in one-run games in 2002; they are 18-17 in one-run games this season.

Randy Johnson and five relievers combined to retire 22 consecutive Dodgers from the eighth to 15th inning in Arizona’s 2-1 win Friday night, and Dessens, who was rocked for 12 earned runs in 10 innings of his last two starts, retired 16 in a row from the first to sixth inning Saturday.

Ashby (2-8) pitched his best game of the season, giving up one run and five hits in seven innings. Dessens (6-7) gave up four hits and struck out six in seven shutout innings and escaped a jam in the seventh when he struck out David Ross and retired Alex Cora on a grounder with the bases loaded.

The Dodgers threatened in the eighth when pinch-hitter Rickey Henderson drew a leadoff walk off Oropesa, the side-winding left-hander. Roberts, activated off the disabled list Saturday, fouled off two bunt attempts before popping out to the catcher.

That play loomed large when Cesar Izturis grounded a single to left, a hit Henderson could have scored on had Roberts advanced him to second. Green struck out looking, Paul Lo Duca walked to load the bases, and Arizona third baseman Craig Counsell reached over the railing in foul territory to make an over-the-shoulder catch of Jeromy Burnitz’s foul pop to end the inning.

“For our pitching staff to throw that well and for me not to execute was frustrating,” said Roberts, who slammed his bat to the ground after popping out in the eighth. “That [bunt] has to get down. I have to do my job.”

Batting instructor Jack Clark’s job seems more and more tenuous in light of the Dodgers’ offensive struggles -- they rank last in the league in batting, runs, hits, home runs, walks, sacrifice hits, slugging percentage and on-base percentage.

“We evaluate people all the time -- I’m not going to categorize his job status,” General Manager Dan Evans said of Clark. “We need to be better in that area. He knows it, and the players know it.”