Hitters Still Fight It in Dodgers’ 3-2 Loss

Nothing unusual occurred Tuesday night at Shea Stadium, a rewarding result for those focused on averting Mike Piazza-Guillermo Mota III.

Of course, typical games haven’t been good for the Dodgers.

They followed a familiar pattern on offense, producing another light-hitting effort in a 3-2 loss to the National League East’s last-place team.

“I don’t know if it’s getting monotonous, but I say an awful lot about the same things, and it is what it is,” said Manager Jim Tracy, whose club has dropped the first game in eight of 11 series this season.

“I constantly, and I’ll just leave it at this because I’ve said it many, many times, I use the word, ‘Enough.’ I italicize the word. If we hit enough to score enough runs, this pitching staff, as has been evident through 33 games, is going to get it done.”

The Dodgers had only five hits, scored their second run on consecutive wild pitches by Met starter Pedro Astacio (2-1) and stranded seven runners in dropping back below .500 (16-17).

“It’s pretty obvious we didn’t hit the ball well,” said Shawn Green, who flied out to deep center to end the seventh with Mike Kinkade, who had a pinch-hit single, on second and the Dodgers trailing, 3-2. “It’s tough to scrounge up more than a couple of runs if you get only five hits.”

Tony Clark and Vance Wilson, playing for Piazza behind the plate, connected on consecutive solo home runs in the fourth -- the Mets’ first back-to-back shots this season -- against Odalis Perez (1-2), providing the most eventful moment for a crowd of 21,173 that had anticipated seeing the third Piazza-Mota altercation.

However, Piazza, the Mets’ All-Star catcher, and the Dodger reliever did not renew their heated rivalry, which resulted in suspensions and fines after a March 12 benches-clearing brawl in spring training.

The commissioner’s office and Mets were on top of the situation this time, and it might have helped that Piazza was out of the lineup after undergoing surgery Monday to have a benign mole removed from his right lower abdomen. The Dodgers used three pitchers, but Mota, the focus of increased security in the visitors’ bullpen, was not among them.

“I’m not thinking nothing is going to happen the next two days,” said Mota, who also scuffled with Piazza in the 2002 exhibition season after hitting him with a pitch.

“You have to move to the next step, so I don’t think about [their history]. All I’m thinking about is pitching good and winning games. That’s the focus.”

Closer Armando Benitez, the Mets’ fifth pitcher, completed the bullpen’s three scoreless innings, working a perfect ninth for his 10th save.

Mota expects to pitch in the series and Piazza is listed as day-to-day. Another encounter might be on the horizon, but that doesn’t matter to the Dodgers.

“It’s been well publicized that we’re here to win games, and they’re trying to win games,” Tracy said. “As you go along in a season, and it’s only [May 6], and you start thinking about doing it without personnel that may get hurt or get suspended or something like that, it’s a very foolish way to think on either side of the field.”

Just in case, the commissioner’s office took precautions.

Roy Sukimoto, the Dodgers’ assistant director of stadium operations and security, remained with Mota in the bullpen throughout the game.

Kevin Hallinan, baseball’s executive director of security and facility management, attended with other high-ranking officials.

“We just wanted to make sure that the Mets put a field-security plan in place that worked,” Hallinan said. “We wanted to make sure that this indeed was explained to the managers and the umpires as to how they were going to go about their business.

“There were no threats or anything like that. We were just taking care of our own business before the fact.”