Weaver Addresses Loaded Question

The fans who rushed to talk shows and chat rooms to skewer Manager Jim Tracy for sticking too long with Jeff Weaver on Friday appear to have a surprising ally -- Weaver himself.

The Dodgers rallied for a 7-4 victory after Weaver gave up a grand slam to Atlanta’s Adam LaRoche in the eighth inning. After the game, Weaver made one comment before walking out of the clubhouse: “Go talk to the skipper.”

Weaver took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and a 2-0 lead into the eighth. With one out, Pete Orr singled and Rafael Furcal doubled. After Marcus Giles struck out, Chipper Jones walked, loading the bases for LaRoche. On Saturday, Weaver suggested he could have come out at that point, or earlier in the inning.

“We had a lot of capable arms out there to get the job done,” he said. “It was just one of those decisions that was made. I didn’t get out of the inning.”

As LaRoche came to bat, Weaver had thrown 114 pitches, the number he had thrown in his April 17 shutout but one he said he had not thrown regularly “since the American League,” where he last pitched in 2003. He implied he was tired.

“If I was or I wasn’t, I’ve got to execute pitches,” he said. “Regardless of whether I felt 100% or not, I had to do it, and I didn’t.”

Pitching coach Jim Colborn visited the mound before LaRoche batted; Weaver said he was not asked whether he was tired and would not have said so anyway. Tracy said that Weaver deserved to stay in with the shutout intact, that the opposing pitcher had the hardest-hit ball off him and that nothing indicated he was tiring.

“When the guy has thrown seven scoreless innings and dominated a lineup like that, it wasn’t in my mind to say, let me take the ball away from him,” Tracy said.

Even with left-hander Kelly Wunsch warming up and the left-handed LaRoche due up, catcher Jason Phillips said Weaver was “throwing great” at that point. He and Tracy agreed Weaver against LaRoche was a more favorable matchup than Wunsch against Julio Franco, whom the Dodgers figured would have batted for LaRoche. Franco is hitting .368 against left-handers.

Weaver, asked whether his frustration stemmed from giving up the grand slam, the lead and his own win -- or being left in long enough to do so -- said it was “a combination of everything.”

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The Dodgers cleared a roster spot for Eric Gagne by sending rookie reliever Steve Schmoll to triple-A Las Vegas.