Lo Duca Is Welcomed Back, but Team Misses Mota

Paul Lo Duca said he didn’t want “storybook.” Besides, there’s no room for sentiment when there’s postseason berths at stake.

After the warm and fuzzy Lo Duca Love Fest turned into a Darren Dreifort Disaster on Monday night, what we got instead was a chilling dose of facts. Lo Duca’s departure didn’t hurt the Dodgers nearly as much as Guillermo Mota’s in the July 30 trade that sent the two along with Juan Encarnacion to the Florida Marlins for Brad Penny, Hee-Seop Choi and Bill Murphy.

There was a loud ovation when Lo Duca was announced as the third batter in the Marlin lineup. The fans cheered throughout a salute to Lo Duca, Mota and Encarnacion that was shown on the video screen. And when Lo Duca came to the plate for his first at-bat the roar from the crowd was so overpowering that he had to step out of the batter’s box twice before the noise and his emotions subsided enough for him to take a swing.

“My point was to dig in, tip my hat, then get back in there ... and I couldn’t get back in there,” Lo Duca said. “A lot of emotions. It was special for me. I had no chance of getting a hit the first couple of at-bats.

“It was something I’ll remember for a long time. It was something you can’t describe.”

The cheers showed how much Lo Duca was missed. The standings show how little he was needed. The Dodgers won 10 of their first 15 games after the trade, winning four of five series along the way and padding their lead in the National League West.

It wasn’t a knock on Lo Duca, just a reflection on what a remarkable, collaborative effort the Dodgers have produced this season.

On his return to Dodger Stadium, Lo Duca lined into a double play, grounded to short and popped up to third in his first three at-bats. Hardly the makings of a happy homecoming.

Instead it was a night of homeboy goes bad.

The Dodgers have six losses since the trade and half of them belong to Dreifort, the man who inherited Mota’s setup role. Just when L.A. fans were relieved of the dreaded sight of Shaquille O’Neal at the free-throw line there has emerged a new glum feeling: Dreifort on the mound. It’s that same sense of dread, when even the man with the ball looks as if he doesn’t want to experience what’s about to happen next.

On Monday, Dreifort walked three Marlins, gave up two hits (one to Lo Duca), and threw three pitches in the dirt -- one of which turned into a run-scoring wild pitch -- during the eighth inning as Florida turned a tie score into the winning margin in their 4-2 victory.

And just to make a feel-good night even more bitter for the sellout crowd at Dodger Stadium, Mota came in to face one batter in the bottom of the eighth and got an inning-ending double play.

Manager Jim Tracy can’t keep throwing Eric Gagne out for two innings every night. So for now he goes with Dreifort on a “day-to-day” basis.

Not as long as the days are like Monday.

At least Penny, the front-line starter the Dodgers got in the trade, the centerpiece of the deal, is.... Umm, nevermind.

There’s not much to report on him. And at this stage no news isn’t good news.

The right biceps he strained while pitching on Aug. 8 isn’t showing enough progress to say for sure when he’ll come off the disabled list. And then what would the Dodgers have to show for the changes?

Lo Duca tried to get a little taste of his old life. He caught a ride to the stadium with Dodger second baseman Alex Cora, his old neighbor.

He said hello to the elevator operators and the ushers, “All the real people that make the stadium go,” as he put it.

Then the elevator doors opened at the bottom floor and while Cora made the familiar turn to the left, Lo Duca veered right, to the visitor’s clubhouse, for the first time in his life.

Still, he’s adjusting pretty well to the new surroundings.

He has collected a hit in 11 of the 12 games he’s played as a Marlin, and is hitting .413 in his new uniform.

Life is pretty good for him, Cora reminded him when they talked, and he’ll probably get the nice big contract he’s seeking.

And as much as he has learned to rationalize the trade as just the business side of baseball, he cracked open a little insight that suggested he still harbored some resentment for the deal.

“It took me a long time to get here, and I’m still in the big leagues,” Lo Duca said. “I look at it that way. I’m in a great organization and they’ve treated me nothing but great, and that’s the way I look at it.

“There’s a part of you, any man, any person, you get fired from your job or anything like that where you’re not wanted, that crosses your mind: The Dodgers didn’t want me. Then you hear that Paul [DePodesta] said they’re a more-equipped team for the playoffs. Well I guess then I wasn’t a part of that playoff run and I wasn’t going to be part of a well-equipped team.

“You take that personal. I mean, I’m a human being. So you’re not wanted, so you go to another team that wants you.”

It’s good to be wanted. It’s even better to be needed. And right now, the Dodgers sure need Guillermo Mota.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Adande go to latimes.com/adande.