Dodgers Can’t Get It Started

Things are still undecided in the National League West and becoming too close for comfort for the Dodgers again.

They would prefer to end the suspense as soon as possible, but another starting pitcher suffered a setback Wednesday night in a 7-3 loss to the San Diego Padres at Dodger Stadium.

A crowd of 34,105 watched as Wilson Alvarez (7-6) failed to record an out in the sixth inning, giving up a leadoff home run to Brian Giles, breaking a 3-3 tie.

The Padres then secured the victory, scoring three more runs against relievers Duaner Sanchez and Giovanni Carrara.

Padre starter Brian Lawrence (15-12) pitched six innings, and closer Trevor Hoffman earned his 37th save.

San Diego improved to 2-1 against the Dodgers in the series that ends tonight, helping to reduce the Dodgers’ lead in the division over second-place San Francisco.

The Giants continued to apply pressure, winning their fourth in a row to pull within 3 1/2 games of the Dodgers (84-61). San Diego (78-68) remained three games behind San Francisco in the NL wild-card race.

The Dodger rotation is in a major slump with the division title up for grabs and the Giants lurking around the corner. Manager Jim Tracy and pitching coach Jim Colborn have seemingly tried every option, and are hopeful Brad Penny can rejoin the rotation next week.

Other than that, the Dodgers are keeping their fingers crossed.

“These guys have been solid for us all year, and everyone knows that,” first baseman Shawn Green said. “But it’s not an easy game. You’re going to go through this sometimes, but we’re still in a good spot.

“We know those guys are going to get going again.”

Alvarez, who replaced Kazuhisa Ishii in the rotation, joined the long list of Dodgers starters experiencing a disappointing month. The rotation has a 6.00 earned-run average in September and only five quality starts in 13 games.

“We should be concerned,” Alvarez said. “We’re not getting the job done lately, and we need to win.”

On Wednesday, Alvarez gave up seven of the Padres’ 13 hits and four earned runs in five-plus innings, putting his ERA in his last three starts at 19.95. He has been pounded for 23 hits in 7 2/3 innings during that span.

Alvarez had not started since he was chased in the second inning of the New York Mets’ 9-2 victory Aug. 27 at Shea Stadium. He also had a 43.82 earned-run average in his previous two starts, and things continued to go in the wrong direction for him against the Padres.

The veteran left-hander got into a brief groove after San Diego tied the score at 3-3 in the second on Sean Burroughs’ two-out single. Alvarez retired the side in order in the third, fourth and fifth.

“I feel good; I know I have a good fastball, but I can’t throw it for strikes,” Alvarez said. “I settled down after the second inning, but the damage was already done.”

And his work ended quickly in the sixth.

Giles’ leadoff shot, his 22nd homer, broke the tie, and Alvarez gave up consecutive singles before Tracy summoned Sanchez from the bullpen.

The Dodgers turned a double play, and Sanchez escaped the inning without further damage, but the Padres went ahead, 5-3, against him on Jay Payton’s leadoff blast in the seventh.

The Dodgers almost overcame Alvarez’s shaky start, rallying for three runs in the bottom of the first to take a 3-2 lead, but squandered a chance to take command. Green singled to knock in a run and the Dodgers got run-scoring doubles from Jayson Werth and Robin Ventura, but they failed to push across another run despite having runners at second and third with none out.

“We’re just trying to do too much right now,” starter Jose Lima said.

“Everyone wants to step up and stop the bleeding, but you need to just do the best you can each time out there. Right now, we just need to do our job.”

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MAGIC NUMBER

Dodgers’ magic number for clinching NL West title.

The magic number is derived by adding one to number of remaining Dodger games and subtracting number of games ahead in the loss column from the next team.