More Power to Pirates

Dodger pitcher Jae Seo attaches tiny magnets to his neck to relieve pain and increase circulation. After nearly suffering whiplash watching home runs fly over his head Tuesday night, he might need to grab every magnet he can find, from refrigerators and car doors, even those oversized ones that look like horseshoes.

Three of four Pittsburgh Pirate homers came against Seo, as the Pirates overcame an early Dodger lead in a 7-6 victory at PNC Park.

The Dodgers flexed their muscles as well, but two homers by Bill Mueller and one by Ricky Ledee were overshadowed by shots from Jeromy Burnitz, Ryan Doumit, Jack Wilson and Craig Wilson of the Pirates.

The one by Craig Wilson -- in the lineup only because Sean Casey had a rib cage injury -- came on the first pitch by reliever Lance Carter to begin the sixth and tied the score, 6-6. Joe Randa then doubled, moved to third on a groundout and scored on a sacrifice fly by Doumit, the reserve catcher.

The Dodgers, meanwhile, were quiet against three Pirate relievers.

“What we have to do is hold those leads and put more runs on the board,” Manager Grady Little said. “Evidently, six isn’t enough.”

A troubling pattern is emerging. The Dodgers score first, then their bats grow quiet as the game progresses and the opposition pulls close against starters and middle relievers.

Sometimes the Dodgers hold the lead; other times they don’t.

The result is a 4-4 record despite scoring 18 runs in first innings and leading after two innings in six games and trailing after two in only one.

Second baseman Jeff Kent said it is too early for the pattern to be meaningful.

“You guys are cracking me up,” he said to reporters asking about the Dodgers’ blowing leads in three of their last five games.

“I’ve been playing 15 years and you are going to talk about the last few days?” he said. “I’m caught off guard by your concern. We’ve been playing great baseball, scoring runs, playing in bad weather except for the last couple of days.

“I’m kind of perplexed.”

Seo might know the feeling.

Spotted a three-run lead before he took the mound in his first Dodger start on a run-scoring single by J.D. Drew and a two-run homer by Ledee, the right-hander gave back two in the bottom of the inning on Burnitz’s blast.

Mueller, who nearly signed with the Pirates during the off-season, hit a two-run shot in the third and a solo homer in the fifth for a 6-3 lead, but the Pirates cut it to 6-5 in the fifth when Doumit and Jack Wilson homered.

“I didn’t put the ball where I wanted to put it,” Seo said. “On all three homers, the ball caught too much of the plate.”

The victory enabled former Dodger manager Jim Tracy to avoid the embarrassment of his new team getting off to its worst start since 1955. As it is, the Pirates are 2-7.

Tracy’s starter, Ian Snell, actually fared worse than Seo, giving up 10 hits and six runs in five innings, including all three home runs. But middle reliever Salomon Torres pitched two scoreless innings, and Roberto Hernandez and Mike Gonzalez each pitched one.

Meanwhile, Carter followed the lead of so many Dodger relievers in recent games, having trouble retiring the first few batters he faced.

Little, however, said the problem is not restricted to Carter.

“The first hitter we face coming out of the bullpen must be hitting eight thousand,” he said. “We certainly need better results in that area.”