Shaky Nomo, Dodgers Fall to Red Sox

The Dodgers might not have any business in a pennant race this season, but they’re in one anyway, muddled in the mediocrity that is the National League West.

So, this week or next week or very soon thereafter, the Dodgers might have to answer a difficult question: If a playoff berth is within their grasp, can they afford to keep Hideo Nomo in their starting rotation?

Nomo delivered another brutal outing in a season full of them, teetering and tottering all evening before getting knocked out in the fourth inning of Sunday’s 4-1 loss to the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park.

There is no shame in losing to Pedro Martinez, as the Dodgers did Sunday, but Nomo sunk his team into a hole yet again. He has not won in his last seven starts, he has not pitched beyond five innings in his last four, and his earned-run average is approaching 8.00. In the quiet of the losing clubhouse, he was an honest man.

“If you just look at the results,” he said through a translator, “I can’t say I am improving.”

The Dodgers, losers of five of their last seven games and 18 of their last 28, flew home Sunday night in first place. They’re four games over .500, good enough to stand percentage points ahead of the San Diego Padres and 1 1/2 games ahead of the San Francisco Giants.

The Dodgers clearly need offensive help. But, if they decide to surrender prospects in one trade to help the team win this season, Nomo’s troubles might well compel them to acquire a starting pitcher instead.

Within the organization, the alternatives to Nomo are few. Jose Lima already is in the rotation, and Manager Jim Tracy said Wilson Alvarez would remain in the bullpen -- “where he belongs,” Tracy said. The top prospects at triple-A Las Vegas, Edwin Jackson and Joel Hanrahan, carry ERAs of 5.11 and 5.01, respectively.

If they acquire a starter -- they are believed to be interested in Freddy Garcia of the Seattle Mariners -- they could cut Nomo, swallowing the balance of his $9-million salary.

Nomo faced 18 batters and retired eight Sunday, throwing 41 balls among 85 pitches, with a fastball ranging from 82 to 88 mph. He gave up four runs in 3 1/3 innings, results that should have been much uglier.

In the first inning, with Dodger coaches positioning shortstop Cesar Izturis behind second base against David Ortiz, Izturis turned an apparent run-scoring single up the middle into a double play.

In the third, with two on and Nomo clearly laboring, Manny Ramirez swung at a 3-0 pitch and grounded into an inning-ending double play.

Even Martinez, asked what encouraged him from his seven-inning, one-run outing, replied: “After having to wait inning after inning with Nomo taking so long ... being able to actually click and make pitches and not get tight.”

The Dodgers once had the magical Martinez, of course, and lost him in the long-lamented 1993 trade with the Montreal Expos for second baseman Delino DeShields. Martinez was a middle reliever then, under a cloud of suspicion that he was too frail to prosper as a starter.

“I just didn’t like the comments about being too small,” he said. “If you have to trade me, trade me, but don’t make any comments after that.”

Dodger pitching coach Jim Colborn said Nomo could win with his current stuff if he threw more strikes. Tracy, when asked whether Nomo would make his scheduled start Saturday against the New York Yankees, said, “Sure he does.”

Beyond then, no promises.