Scioscia’s Feast, Tracy’s Famine

At this point the only hard part for Dodger Manager Jim Tracy is trying to see the field through all of the vultures circling the dugout.

Mike Scioscia, his Angel counterpart, is the one with all of the decisions to make as players come off the disabled list. For Tracy, his options limited in the lineup and rotation, it’s down to handing in the lineup card on time, then hoping things can work out as well as they did for him in the Dodgers’ 10-5 victory over the Angels on Sunday.

Kazuhisa Ishii managed to keep his hits-and-walks total below 10 for only the third time in eight starts. The Dodgers had production from the top to bottom of the order, especially from Adrian Beltre smack dab in the middle, bopping two home runs.

That makes it an easy call to keep him in the cleanup spot for a while, especially if he keeps punishing right-handed pitchers. Of course, the real decision on Beltre comes after the season, when the Dodgers will probably have to double his current $5-million salary if they want to keep the free-agent-to-be.

That move is out of Tracy’s hands. And he might not be around to feel the impact one way or the other if the Dodgers go on another long losing streak or two.

But it’s amazing how quickly a manager can go from scapegoat to smarty when the 3-4-5 hitters (Shawn Green, Beltre and Juan Encarnacion) produce eight hits, three home runs and seven runs batted in.

Now, “It’s a matter of being able to carry it out and do it consistently to get us where we want to go,” Tracy said.

That’s all beyond his control. If he had many more options, he would have used them by now. Edwin Jackson isn’t tearing up triple A, so you won’t see him on the mound at Dodger Stadium soon. If the Dodgers had any promising prospects they would have swung a deal for Carlos Beltran or Freddy Garcia. (Right? Right????)

It’s Scioscia who has to make the managerial decisions. For starters, take Sunday’s starter. Bartolo Colon was hammered for eight hits and eight runs in 3 2/3 innings. Yes, he took a line drive by Green behind the right knee in the middle of the Dodgers’ seven-run fourth inning. But as Scioscia said, “I think Bart was having problems with his command before he got hit in the leg.”

If anyone’s getting hurt, it’s the team when Colon pitches. The supposed ace of the staff has given up six earned runs or more five times -- nearly a third of his 16 starts. The man with a reputation for chewing up innings has failed to make it to the sixth inning seven times. For the season, he’s 5-7 with a 6.17 earned-run average.

“I think that he’s healthy, there’s nothing really mechanically that we can point to,” Scioscia said. “He just has to get out there and repeat pitches and throw the ball the way he’s capable of.”

Scioscia could sit him for a start or two. Instead Aaron Sele’s return means Ramon Ortiz is the odd man out, heading back to the bullpen despite giving up six hits and one run over 11 1/3 innings in two starts this month.

Scioscia called it “a tough decision.” Shouldn’t it be easy to see that Colon needs to sit? But Colon is making $9 million in salary and $5 million in signing bonus this season, and $14 million buys a lot of patience in pro sports.

“We’ve talked about a lot of things,” Scioscia said. “We talked about at one point pushing him back. Bart feels very comfortable with his regular turn. He thinks that’s going to bring the best out of him, and we agree.”

That’s the way Colon always did it in Cleveland, Montreal and the south side of Chicago.

Colon, through an interpreter, said, “I’m used to taking the ball and not taking additional days. However they want to work with me here is fine.”

It might be time to put flexibility to the test.

Scioscia already has enough ego-juggling to do with Troy Percival and Tim Salmon.

With Percival coming off the disabled list, does Scioscia stay with the all-time saves leader in franchise history as his closer or does he make the move to Mr. Today and Tomorrow, Francisco Rodriguez?

Rodriguez sure looked impressive when he pitched the final 1 1/3 innings (with two strikeouts) to get the save Saturday.

On Sunday Percival was shaky in his first game since he went on the DL with a strained muscle in his forearm June 6. He threw a curveball that bounced behind Dave Roberts and hit Green with another pitch that bounced in the dirt. Percival deserves a couple of appearances to shake off the rust and to show whether his blown saves were attributable to his arm problems. After that Scioscia should have a quick hook.

Salmon, another longtime Angel, found himself pushed to the margin when Vladimir Guerrero took his spot in right field. That forced Salmon to share designated hitter duties with Jeff DaVanon, or pinch-hit during interleague games in National League parks.

It’s a tough balancing act, keeping the needs of the team in line with the respect due Percival and Salmon.

“I definitely think he’s trying to look after us,” said Salmon, who drove in three runs with a pinch-hit double Sunday. “He realizes that we still have value and we bring something to this team. I think his job’s tough in that, in both cases, we are getting older and we’re not always healthy. Then it’s a matter of getting us back in there and getting our timing and getting our pitches. We have a lot to bring to this club. We have a great club. You can win without us right now, but I think we have a lot to bring to the club and to add to make us better.”

You’d still rather be Scioscia than Tracy. You’d take the security and the abundance of options. That doesn’t mean Scioscia has it easy.

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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.