Weaver Comes Up a Penny Short

Jeff Weaver escaped New York with his psyche still intact, so it would take more than poor run support to push him over the edge.

Weaver has faced bigger problems than his current situation, which worsened Wednesday night in a 2-0 loss to the Florida Marlins at Pro Player Stadium.

The right-hander delivered what Manager Jim Tracy described as “far and away his best performance” in a strong seven-inning outing, but Marlin starter Brad Penny stole the show in shutting down the Dodgers in front of 13,308.

Penny (3-1) pitched 7 2/3 scoreless innings while overwhelming the Dodgers with a crackling 98-mph fastball. Weaver kept pace after the Marlins had a two-run first inning on Abraham Nunez’s run-scoring triple and Mike Lowell’s run-scoring single, but he gave up two runs too many with Penny rolling.

The result was another disappointing evening for Weaver (1-4), who has dropped three in a row despite quality starts in his last two outings.

Weaver had hoped for a better beginning with the Dodgers, but at least he’s no longer a target of New York Yankee fans.

“I just go out there, try to put my best foot forward and take care of what I can,” said Weaver, who lowered his earned-run average from 6.07 to 5.40.

“You can only control your part of the game and just let everything else take care of itself. Baseball is a frustrating sport in general, and that’s just the way it’s going right now.”

That’s happening to Weaver more than any other Dodger starter.

“The bottom line with Jeff Weaver is that Jeff Weaver has had a number of starts where he has thrown the ball very well for us,” Tracy said. “If you go back and look at the number of runs that have been scored in his starts, I don’t think you’re going to come up with a very large number. We have not done much offensively through the course of his starts.”

Including Wednesday’s loss, the Dodgers have scored 16 runs in Weaver’s six starts for an average of 2.7 per start. They’ve scored three or fewer runs in five of Weaver’s outings.

“He had everything going tonight,” catcher Paul Lo Duca said of Weaver. “He had every pitch and this is a tough lineup. He just threw outstanding, but Penny went right after us and we just didn’t get it done.”

Milton Bradley went hitless in four at-bats and grounded into three double plays. His last one ended the game after Cesar Izturis drew a one-out walk against closer Armando Benitez, who earned his 11th save one night after suffering his first blown save in the Dodgers’ 4-3, 11-inning victory.

“Penny pitched like a champion tonight,” said Bradley, playing through the pain of a high ankle sprain. “You see it good, you swing at it but you just don’t hit it.”

Adrian Beltre had half of the Dodgers’ four hits against Penny, hitting doubles in the sixth and eighth innings. Beltre was stranded at second in the sixth, and at third in the eighth when pinch-hitter Olmedo Saenz struck out against Matt Perisho with runners on the corners.

“Penny had great command of his fastball, and it had a lot of life,” Beltre said. “He was throwing 98, 99 [mph]. He knew how to pitch us.”

Tracy said the Dodgers couldn’t ask more of Weaver.

“We’re just going to encourage him to keep throwing the ball the way he has been throwing it,” Tracy said. “If you look at just the won-lost record and come to the conclusion that he’s not throwing the ball well, you’re off track as far as the assessment of that.

“I don’t know if you can throw the ball much better than he has thrown it. It’s tough to take.”