Dodgers Will Sink or Swim With Green

No one can say for sure if Hideo Nomo’s fingernail is any more critical than Adrian Beltre’s bone spur or Dave Roberts’ hamstring.

The Dodgers, with their fragile rotation and struggling offense, need every cylinder to survive a division in which every day is a survival test for all five teams.

The reality is obvious, but so is this:

Nothing is more critical to the Dodgers -- nor, perhaps, more singularly pivotal in a division race comparable to a retreat -- than Shawn Green’s swing and psyche.

For now, seldom has Green’s swing been less productive, his psyche more clouded -- the latter the result of the former and more.

After all, this is not Gary Sheffield blowing off everything and everyone around him and bombing away at the plate.

By now, after four years, we have a sense of who Shawn Green is.

We know, as a friend confirms, that he is a guy who prefers to be in the shadows of the lineup and who internalizes the demons that can come with his job.

May is turning to June and Green is in a prolonged slump at the plate with no shadows in which to seek refuge.

He is trying to grind it out, in his words, trying to keep his head clear.

But there are daily and complicating questions from probing reporters, the reality that the club’s new leadership did little to provide offensive help other than catch Milton Bradley falling into their lap and the inescapable fact that his manager openly considers him the key to 2004, which Green can accept if, in the process, he is not made to appear as a whipping boy.

While Bradley remained in the No. 3 spot in the order during a month in which he had driven in only four runs, Green paid the price for a .165 struggle that had dropped his average to .216.

He has been bounced from fourth to fifth to second to fourth, from the middle of the lineup to the bench for a day, from his new position of first base to his old position of right field.

One day Jim Tracy is telling reporters that Green wouldn’t benefit from being moved out of the cleanup spot and almost the next he is moved.

One day Tracy is saying his embattled hitter wouldn’t benefit from a day off and the next day he is off.

At $16 million this year and in 2005, Green knows he is being paid to perform, knows the shadows turned to spotlight when he was traded to the Dodgers and he accepted a six-year, $84-million contract, but did that change his sensitivities?

Isn’t an introspective player already wrestling with the demons of an inconsistent start apt to think that a manager unsigned beyond 2004 is laying the groundwork for a blame game?

Green is Sheffield’s polar opposite, but clubhouse sources say he got into Tracy’s face during a heated, closed-door exchange on the recent trip. Neither would discuss the incident, but Tracy is adamant about Green’s role.

“If this club is going to do anything in 2004, Shawn Green is going to have to get himself through this and be the guy,” Tracy said. “All I’ve been trying to do is find a way to relieve some of his stress and trigger some momentum. Any change in the lineup or his playing time was only for a short period. A lot of good players have experienced the same thing.”

Last year there was a shoulder injury that restricted Green’s power and ultimately required surgery. The Dodgers never revealed the injury, allowing Green to absorb much of the blame for an inept offense. Now it’s as if internal fingers are being pointed again. The Dodgers had lost 10 of their last 12 games through Friday. Green had five hits in his last 38 at-bats, no homers in his last 65.

A whipping boy? Green sat at his locker, thinking about that, and then said: “I understand the way things work. I have a big contract, a big responsibility. We’re not doing well, not winning, and I get a lot of the focus. The only complication is that I have to answer a lot of questions at a time when I’m trying to get going.

“The more attention, the harder it becomes to clear my head, have fun and go out and hit. It’s definitely easier said than done, but I still feel I’m in a better place with this than I’ve been at times in the past. Struggles are never fun to be in the middle of, but all it takes is a couple hits to create some momentum.”

It is hard to believe, but Green insists that he has been mired this deep before -- two years ago before the explosive series in Milwaukee and in the early weeks of his early years with Toronto.

He insists that his shoulder is fine and there are no other injuries.

“The hardest thing in my career has been trying to find my swing early in the season,” he said. “Once I do it can become a reference point, but it’s never been easy for me getting there. Each year I’ve taken a different approach trying to jump-start it, and all I’m looking to do at this point is get better each day, do at least one thing positive.”

Saturday night, he did a couple, driving in two runs with a pair of singles in the Dodgers’ 10-0 rout of Arizona. Time will tell if it’s an awakening.

In a five-year span from 1998 through 2002, Green averaged 38 homers and 112 runs batted in. He doesn’t have to be told that he can be a key to his team much as Barry Bonds has been for the San Francisco Giants.

It’s strange, though. Now Green has to check the lineup card to see if he’s on it and/or where he’s hitting.

“The manager has a job,” he said, avoiding more wounds. “Mine is to try and hit and perform. I don’t want to have to think about too much else at the plate.”

The swing and the psyche. They’re inseparable.