Perez’s Poor Series Muddies Future

Compared with the ear-shattering decibel level that is now operated at Dodger Stadium under marketing vice president Lon Rosen (is he a punk rocker, or what?), 14.40 seems modest.

As an earned-run average, however, it stinks.

Which means it accurately portrays both of the starting performances by Odalis Perez in the late, lamented division series with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Perez failed to get out of the third inning again in Game 4 on Sunday night, stringing out his team’s beleaguered bullpen in a 6-2 loss that left the Dodgers with a magic number of 2005 and propelled the Cardinals into the National League’s championship series against either Atlanta or Houston.

Where Perez goes from here is uncertain.

Eligible for free agency, he became a harder sell by saving his two shortest stints of an already disappointing season for the national spotlight of the postseason.

As the veteran scout of a National League playoff team said before Game 4: “Unless he turns it around tonight, Perez is going to have left a lot of money on the table this week.”

Where the Dodgers go from here is comparably uncertain, but there are definite priorities for an organization justifiably proud of having won a division title that not even Nostradamus would have predicted.

The West is now there to build on, and the off-season focus will be on owner Frank McCourt.

Will he provide the financial resources or does he intend to lower a payroll of about $92 million to the $75-million range sweeping the industry?

Among the things he needs to do:

* Reward Manager Jim Tracy with a multiyear contract.

* Re-sign Adrian Beltre at any cost and retain Steve Finley if economically feasible in years and dollars.

* Trade the combustible Milton Bradley if any club will have him or don’t tender him if no one will.

* Pursue free-agent outfielder Carlos Beltran as a replacement for Finley or Bradley or both while also pursuing free-agent Jason Varitek at catcher, a position that has to be improved.

* Lock up Eric Gagne with a multiyear contract rather than risking another alienating debate in arbitration.

* Rebuild a rotation that ends the season as a wing and a prayer.

Can it all be done?

Well, it’s easy to spend someone else’s money, but the bottom line is this:

The San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants, their primary rivals in the West, can be expected to improve, making it imperative that the Dodgers do as well.

Making it imperative, in addition, they restore pitching as the name of their game.

“As it is for most clubs, starting pitching is a need for us going into the off-season,” General Manager Paul DePodesta understated in the Dodger clubhouse after the final out of his team’s final game.

For now, the projected rotation consists of a healthy Brad Penny, a healthy Edwin Jackson, an inconsistent Jeff Weaver and an erratic Kazuhisa Ishii.

Nice.

The Dodgers will certainly re-sign Jose Lima, the free-agent toast of the town, but Hideo Nomo is probably gone, Wilson Alvarez is likely to go, and Perez compounded his uncertain status with a disappointing postseason and a summer of questionable work habits illustrated by a bulging waist.

“Whatever happens, happens,” Perez said. “I’ve been very happy in Los Angeles and would be happy to return, but I don’t control that.

“It’s a business. If I have to move on, then l have to move on.”

Perez allowed three earned runs or less in 26 of his 31 starts but was only 7-6 despite a 3.25 ERA, the National League’s 10th best.

A 27-year-old left hander who should be at the top of his game and had the opportunity to be a coveted attraction in the free-agent market, Perez may have blown it while giving up eight hits and eight runs in the five innings of his two starts against the Cardinals.

He walked seven, including five Sunday night, when he had the gall to say he was surprised and disagreed with Tracy’s decision to lift him after only 2 1/3 innings of a game the Dodgers had to win to survive.

“I wasn’t really that wild,” he said. “I was just missing.”

Well, he may have just been missing, but he was doing it consistently, which he acknowledged.

“I’m too good to allow that many walks in a division series game,” he said, “and there’s no way I could imagine not pitching at least three innings in either game.

“I haven’t done that since I was in rookie ball. Sometimes you can try too hard.”

Interested clubs will have to decide if that was it.

Perez’s market value took a hit in the series, and it’s suspected that this was his last start as a Dodger.

If so, Perez said, he is proud of his contributions here, adding “we should all be proud of what we did this year. No one expected us to get this far.”

It is hard to argue.

Indeed, there will be enough to argue about during a challenging winter for the Dodgers.

The hot stove debates may be even louder than the infernal sound system at Dodger Stadium, which brings up one more priority.

Re-sign organist Nancy Bea Hefley.

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Hard Times

In two starts against St. Louis in the division series, Odalis Perez struggled with control and never got past the third inning.

*--* INN H R ER BB SO NP ERA GAME 1 2 2/3 5 6 6 2 3 54 20.25 GAME 4 2 1/3 3 2 2 5 0 60 14.40

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