Rolen Is Still Searching for His First Hit

As he limped from the showers, a bag of ice strapped to his left calf, Scott Rolen eyed a crush of reporters waiting at his locker.

“What are you guys doing here?” he asked with a sly grin after going 0 for 4 in the St. Louis Cardinals’ 4-0 loss to the Dodgers in Game 3 of their National League division series.

“I didn’t do nothing. I guess that’s the point, huh?”

Rolen, the clean-up hitter in the Cardinal lineup, which some are calling a modern-day Murderer’s Row, has not been the same since injuring his left leg in early September.

Far from it. Or, as the clubhouse cut-up likes to put it, he’s “close to being close.”

He was never closer than in the first inning Saturday night.

Rolen, who began the game in a three-for-24 slump, smoked a pair of line drives down the third-base line that were about five feet foul. He ended up striking out.

“I had those two that were just a bit foul,” Rolen said. “Then ... I lined out to center a couple of times. Maybe I’ll try to mix it up [today] and just get hit by a pitch.”

Whatever works.

Rolen, who set career highs in batting average (.314), homers (34) and runs batted in (124) and is lauded as one of three MVP candidates from the Cardinals, along with Albert Pujols and Jim Edmonds, is 0 for 10 with three walks in the division series.

The third baseman is batting .107 since returning from his injury, which occurred on Sept. 10 at Dodger Stadium when he fouled a pitch off his shin and then, with his leg numb, tweaked his knee while legging out a double. The swelling affected his calf and Rolen, 29, did not return to the Cardinal lineup until Sept. 28.

His bat was not missed in the Cardinals’ first two games of the series as St. Louis pounded out 20 hits and scored 16 runs in a pair of 8-3 victories at Busch Stadium.

Against Dodger right-hander Jose Lima, however, the entire Cardinal lineup looked wounded, eking out just five hits while getting shut out by a renowned gopher-ball pitcher.

Murderer’s Row?

More like a gaggle of Girlie Men. After all, Gov. Schwarzenegger was at the game, rooting for the Dodgers.

“I don’t feel bad at the plate,” Rolen said, his face belying his words.

“I think my timing is a little bit off. It came to a head in the first inning. I had three good swings ... but I was not really playing between the lines.

“There are no excuses for today. If you [reporters] want to make some up for me, be my guest. I can’t make any for myself. I just need to get in there and get my timing back.”

His timing on cracking self-deprecating jokes is already on point.