With the Season on the Line, a Single-Digit Loss

Just another fingernail in their coffin.

Odalis Perez was scheduled to start a last-gasp playoff-race game for the Dodgers on Wednesday, but then he got cuticle on them.

Complaining that he couldn’t pitch because of a chipped nail on the middle finger of his left hand, Perez took the night off.

He couldn’t have unsettled his teammates more if he had raked that finger down a blackboard.

While Perez’s absence allowed 20-year-old Edwin Jackson to show more flashes of brilliance, his lack of urgency was contagious in the Dodgers’ 2-0 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks in front of weary boos at Dodger Stadium.

Even a $50 manicure can’t make this look pretty.

The Dodger offense can’t adjust against a rookie pitcher, Brandon Webb, who faced them just last week.

The Dodger offense leaves the bases loaded in the first inning, and slides past second base in the ninth.

The Dodger offense, barely improved this summer, ostensibly to protect young stars such as Jackson in the trade market, is so weak you still wonder why a young arm couldn’t have been moved.

The Dodgers not only fall 3 1/2 games behind leader Florida in the wild-card race, but there are suddenly three teams in front of them, with the patsy-feasting Chicago Cubs sneaking into third place behind the Marlins and Philadelphia Phillies.

Twelve games remaining, three teams to pass, nearly a handful of games behind ... hmmm.

It all adds up to 11-1, the record the Dodgers must seemingly achieve in their final 12 games to even have a shot at October.

But without the full effort of Odalis Perez, their season is over now.

Yes, Jackson was wonderful again in his second start, emptying his large pockets of fastballs that fooled all but Luis Gonzalez.

But Jackson is about the future, while, frayed as it is, there is still a present.

That present includes two more scheduled starts by Perez, who supposedly offers a veteran presence that Jackson does not, although one wonders.

Manager Jim Tracy was asked, if Perez had emphatically demanded the ball Wednesday, would he have been allowed to pitch?

“I’d have to answer that question ‘yes,’ ” Tracy said. “I’d give it to him.”

But Perez never asked. He said he broke the fingernail in his last start, and never felt comfortable during his ensuing bullpen sessions, and didn’t want to take a chance. A manicurist was not summoned because a fake nail apparently doesn’t hold well in these situations.

Perez said he couldn’t pitch because he couldn’t grip the ball. Yet at this critical point in the race, there are those who will surely wonder about his grip on reality.

“I want to be prepared 100% to be out there,” Perez said. “I don’t want to be risking one thing when I know it’s not good. I want to go out there confident and knowing I’m going to pitch a good game.”

As Perez spoke these words behind the batting cage before the game, Shawn Green was carrying his damaged right shoulder into the clubhouse, Adrian Beltre was dragging his sore legs into the dugout, and Dave Roberts was working his tender hamstring down the foul line.

On a Dodger team that is dirt-caked and crawling toward the finish line, if Perez needs to feel 100%, then that would make him the only one.

Perez asking out of this game is like Gary Sheffield being ejected in the first inning of a late-season game against the Diamondbacks two years ago.

This could also be his ticket out of town.

The situation is volatile enough that even Perez’s trademark pre-game salsa music can’t drown out the complaints.

The Dodgers are still mad that, this summer, he was the only pitcher to publicly rip the hitters.

They are still remembering how, late last summer, he missed two starts simply because he was tired.

They are surely wondering, is he unselfish enough to be a playoff-race pitcher?

One thing was for certain.

Kevin Brown and Hideo Nomo would have pitched this game with a broken leg.

“I don’t want to be out there and embarrass myself,” Perez said.

It being the middle of September, should you really care?

Fifteen years ago in the playoffs, Orel Hershiser risked embarrassment by walking into the bullpen.

Fifteen years ago in the World Series, Kirk Gibson risked embarrassment by hobbling to home plate.

To win championships, even the richest, most secure players in the world must risk something.

Embarrassment would seem to rank far down that list.

It certainly wasn’t a concern for Edwin Jackson.

“I went out and challenged them ... whatever else happens, happens,” said the kid.

The Dodgers hope the veteran was watching.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com.