Tough Outing for Nomo

Hideo Nomo is kind of like a puzzled auto mechanic scratching his head in doubt when it comes to the way he pitched Thursday afternoon against the Chicago Cubs: He doesn’t know what went wrong or how to go about fixing it.

Nomo walked three consecutive batters during a disastrous second inning that he didn’t survive in the Dodgers’ 7-3 loss in front of 39,591 at Dodger Stadium that ended a six-game winning streak.

But Nomo said neither his velocity nor his mechanics failed him during an ill-fated 1 1/3-inning outing, his shortest in six years.

“I don’t know exactly what was wrong,” Nomo said through an interpreter. “I just try to do the best I can.”

Whatever the cause, Nomo’s ineffectiveness this season is cause for concern on a team that has the best record in baseball but is only 4-4 in games that its ace has started.

Nomo’s outing Thursday -- his worst of the season -- prompted Cub Manager Dusty Baker to say he has never seen Nomo this wild and Dodger catcher David Ross to concede that Nomo bears little resemblance to the 16-game winner of 2003.

“If he did,” Ross said, “he would be getting people out.”

The last time Nomo (3-4) got off to this kind of start for the Dodgers, in 1998, when he opened the season 2-7 following off-season elbow surgery, he demanded a trade and wound up with the New York Mets.

Nomo again had off-season surgery, this time on his pitching shoulder, which has stirred concerns about his velocity. But if Manager Jim Tracy’s reaction to questions about his confidence in Nomo was any indication, there is no movement to unload the veteran right-hander.

“You’re talking about a guy that has been a warrior here for the last two years,” Tracy said. “What do you think I would say about us having confidence in a guy like that? He’s done a remarkable job here.

“When people are struggling a little bit, I think it’s important to be very supportive of them, knowing who you’re dealing with and knowing that the situation is fixable. If there’s a guy in that room that is going to fix something that’s wrong, it’s him.”

Nomo got off to a good enough start when he retired the Cubs in order in the first, but Ross said he could already tell that Nomo was struggling to locate his split-fingered fastballs.

After Aramis Ramirez singled to open the second, Nomo walked three consecutive batters, including Ramon Martinez with the bases loaded. Paul Bako drove in Chicago’s second run with a single to center and pitcher Carlos Zambrano reached on a run-scoring groundout before Tom Goodwin ended Nomo’s afternoon with a single to right-center that made it 4-0.

“We could ill afford to allow the game to get any further away from us,” Tracy said of his decision to remove Nomo at that point. “From what we were seeing, it didn’t look like Hideo was going to be able to rectify himself today.”

One batter after Nomo left to scattered boos, Moises Alou smacked a two-run double off reliever Jose Lima to cap a six-run inning that was cobbled together without the assistance of slugger Sammy Sosa, who was given the day off.

Nomo’s final pitching line: 1 1/3 innings, three hits, six runs, three walks and one strikeout. He threw 24 of his 46 pitches for strikes.

Zambrano (4-1) was as good as his counterpart was bad, striking out 11 while giving up two hits and no earned runs in eight innings. The Dodgers scored an unearned run in the seventh on pinch-hitter Olmedo Saenz’s sacrifice fly and added two more meaningless runs in the ninth off Cub closer Joe Borowski.

Nomo has lost his last three decisions and has yet to pitch more than six innings in any of his eight starts this season.

“Everybody goes through slumps,” Ross said. “Hopefully, he can work it out. We know he’s a great pitcher on our staff, and we’re going to need him to go through this season.”