Early Problems Do Dodgers In

With Jeff Weaver, Brad Penny and Derek Lowe, the Dodgers have an idea as to what they’re going to get whenever one of them starts a game -- some semblance of consistency -- as they chase the sub-.500 National League West crown.

Which makes the pressure on rookies Edwin Jackson and D.J. Houlton all the more daunting.

Tuesday night, against Colorado, Jackson cracked early. The right-hander was also doomed by three errors, one by each of his outfielders.

And the Dodgers suffered a costly 6-4 defeat at Dodger Stadium.

Houlton, meanwhile, gets his shot at the Rockies tonight in the series finale.

It was another opportunity lost for the Dodgers, with first-place San Diego falling for the second night in a row in San Francisco.

The Dodgers remained five games behind the Padres with 18 games remaining, but find themselves in a second-place tie with the Giants.

“It was tough to lose that game,” Dodger Manager Jim Tracy said. “We had a hole to climb out of early. We tried hard to do so.

“We lost a day on the calendar.... It wasn’t pitched well and it was poor defense.”

Jackson (1-2) lasted all of 1 1/3 innings, throwing 48 pitches, and was charged with six runs, five earned, while giving up three hits. He also walked three batters, hitting another, and threw a wild pitch in his fourth start in place of the injured Odalis Perez.

Jackson’s earned-run average is 9.37.

“Defense had nothing to do with the loss,” Jackson said, referring to second-inning errors. “My job is to out-pitch the other pitcher. I went out and I didn’t get the job done.

“They adjusted off my mistakes and that’s that.”

The Rockies chased the erratic Jackson with the six-run second, an inning in which, in order, left fielder Ricky Ledee (throwing error), right fielder Jose Cruz Jr. (a dropped line drive) and center fielder Jayson Werth (misplayed ball) contributed to the Dodgers’ demise.

Colorado starter Sunny Kim (5-2) gave up four runs and five hits in five innings. The right-hander also struck out four and walked two with a wild pitch for the last-place Rockies, who have won six of the last seven meetings with the Dodgers.

Already trailing 6-0, the Dodgers scored four times in the fourth against Kim.

Cruz’s double down the first-base line scored Jeff Kent and moved Ledee to third.

Kim’s wild pitch allowed Ledee to score before Brian Myrow walked to put runners at first and third. Werth’s one-out single brought home Cruz and moved Myrow to third.

Hee-Seop Choi, pinch-hitting for reliever Elmer Dessens, followed with a sacrifice fly to deep right, allowing Myrow to come home and give the Dodgers hope.

Jeff Weaver’s three-hit shutout against the Rockies the night before enabled the Dodger bullpen to rest.

It showed as the relief corps shined.

Dessens, Giovanni Carrara, Franquelis Osoria and Yhency Brazoban combined to throw 7 2/3 innings of shutout ball.

The Dodgers threatened in the eighth, but Phillips struck out with Ledee on third and pinch-runner Antonio Perez on second.

Phillips, playing because rookie catcher Dioner Navaro was out because his wife gave birth earlier in the day, left six runners on base. Phillips was 0 for 4 with two strikeouts.

Tracy, meanwhile, would not entertain the question of whether Jackson deserves another start in a divisional race.

“That’s not a point of discussion,” he said.

Neither, it turns out, were the Dodgers’ prospects of gaining on the Padres.