Dodgers Continue to Slide

By Steve Henson

June 21, 2005 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

SAN DIEGO —

Bolting out of the gate with 12 wins in 14 games had an unexpected downside: It gave the Dodgers a false sense of superiority.

They played with house money for nine weeks, slowly squandering the good fortune. Now here they are, pockets turned inside out, squinting into the glare of the summer ahead.

Busted.

Beaten up.

And beaten again Monday night, punchless against the pitches of Jake Peavy, who struck out a career-high 13 in the San Diego Padres’ 1-0 victory in front of an announced sellout crowd of 41,643 at Petco Park.

The loss was the seventh in a row for the Dodgers (33-36), who are 13 games under .500 since those heady first two weeks and trail the first-place Padres (39-31) by 5 1/2 games in the NL West.

The Dodgers play the Padres six more times in the next nine days, meaning they could climb back into the race or slip into oblivion. The stretch is especially tough considering the Dodgers have seven players on the disabled list.

“It’s not over by any stretch of the imagination,” Manager Jim Tracy said. “But from now until the All-Star break is a very, very important part of the season.”

Starting pitching has been the least of the problems lately, and Brad Penny (3-4) gave the Dodgers their fifth quality start of the losing streak by giving up one run in six innings.

But he was no match for Peavy, who gave up two hits in eight innings before giving way to closer Trevor Hoffman. It marked another memorable June 20 for Peavy -- it’s his son’s birthday, and he was called up by the Padres on that date in 2002.

Peavy, 24, hadn’t faced the Dodgers since blanking them over eight innings and striking out 11 in September. The result was virtually the same, the Dodgers going down meekly.

“His ability to pitch both sides of the plate with his fastball and the arm angle on his sweeping slider made him very difficult to hit,” Tracy said.

Penny’s effectiveness was less predictable. Six of seven Padre batters who had previously faced him were hitting a combined .393 against him and none had an average lower than .294.

The lone holdout was Brian Giles, who came in with only two hits in 11 at-bats against the hard-throwing right-hander.

So who did the most damage? Giles, of course. He doubled twice, singled, and drove in the only run with a shot to the gap in left-center in the fourth.

All of a sudden he is batting .357 against Penny.

Robert Fick, who led off the inning with a single, was running on the full-count pitch and scored easily. Giles’ double was precisely the type of hit the Dodgers haven’t gotten in a while.

“We just needed a big base hit, and we didn’t get it,” said Olmedo Saenz, who popped up with runners on first and second to end the game.

A glaring weakness during the losing streak has been producing with runners in scoring position. This time, the Dodgers had only three such opportunities.

Penny poked a double down the right-field line with one out in the sixth, but Cesar Izturis bounced out and Jason Repko struck out. Hee-Seop Choi reached second when his ground ball squirted under the legs of first baseman Phil Nevin to lead off the eighth, but Peavy got Jayson Werth to ground out and struck out Jason Phillips and pinch-hitter Jason Grabowski.

Hoffman ran into trouble with two out in the ninth by walking J.D. Drew and giving up a single to Jeff Kent, but he retired Saenz and notched his 18th save.

“Everybody is trying to hit it over the wall and we end up getting ourselves out,” Saenz said. “We are trying too hard.”

And trying the patience of pitchers who waste solid outings.

“We’ve just got to keep going out there and keep the team in the game,” Penny said. “Eventually the hitters will come around.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

On the skids

The Dodgers lost their seventh game in a row Monday, but they have had losing streaks of at least seven games the last two seasons as well:

*--* 2003: SEVEN

*--*

* Dates: June 27-July 4.

* Teams: Angels (1), Padres (3), Diamondbacks (3).

* Place before: 45-32 (2nd, 1 game behind Giants).

* Place after: 45-39 (3rd, 6.5 behind Giants).