Dodgers’ Seo Has Bad Start

Pause, pitch, repeat. Jae Seo’s windup includes a brief interval at its midway point common among Asian hurlers.

But there was no letup in the rat-a-tat-tat of Arizona Diamondback bats against him in a 5-4 Dodger loss Saturday night. Seo gave up all the runs and nine hits in 3 2/3 innings at Dodger Stadium, where he had pitched well before this season for the New York Mets.

How slow was Seo? His pitches would have barely kept up with some of the drivers barreling down the freeway to get home from the game.

His fastball peaked at 86 mph and many came in at 84 mph. His slider was in the high 70s, all of which rendered his 75 mph changeup less effective.

“My control was off and too many pitches were over the plate,” he said.

It’s becoming a disturbing pattern. In three starts and a relief appearance, Seo has allowed 25 hits and 15 earned runs in 17 2/3 innings. That’s a far cry from his stellar performance in the World Baseball Classic, when he was 2-0 with a 0.64 earned-run average for Korea.

Is it too soon to give Seo the heave-ho and send him to the minors like the Mets did last season?

“This is a tough level to figure things out,” Manager Grady Little said.

The Dodgers have three candidates pitching well at triple-A Las Vegas who could eventually take Seo’s place in the starting rotation.

Veteran Aaron Sele is 2-0 with 16 strikeouts and three walks in 17 innings. Top prospect Chad Billinglsey is 2-0 with a 2.93 ERA and 19 strikeouts in 15 1/3 innings. And D.J. Houlton has a 3.14 ERA and 13 strikeouts in 14 innings.

The Dodger front office doesn’t believe Billingsley is ready yet because his pitch count is reaching 100 in the fourth and fifth innings. They also aren’t convinced the soft-throwing Sele would be an improvement over Seo.

For his part, Seo said he isn’t concerned about losing his spot in the rotation.

“It’s still early in the season,” he said.

It was the equivalent of opening day for Nomar Garciaparra, who swung the bat well in his first game as a Dodger, showing no ill effects from his three-week stay on the disabled list because of a strained rib cage.

In the first inning he drilled a grounder off the leg of starter Miguel Batista with two out and runners at first and third. The ball caromed to first baseman Tony Clark, who stepped on the bag to end the inning.

In the fourth, Garciaparra hit a double inside the right-field line and scored the first Dodger run. And in the fifth he came a few feet from an opposite-field home run, hitting a drive that sent right fielder Shawn Green to the wall.

As it was, the Dodgers scored two runs in the inning to pull within 5-3, then added a run in the sixth on a two-out bloop double by pinch-hitter Ricky Ledee.

A diving stop by second baseman Orlando Hudson on a grounder up the middle by the next batter, Rafael Furcal, prevented Ledee from scoring the tying run. Although Furcal was safe at first and stole second, Kenny Lofton’s soft liner was caught by Hudson, and the Diamondbacks entered the seventh leading, 5-4.

“It was special to run out there with that uniform,” Garciaparra said. “I’m not going to lie. I was nervous.”

It also was Garciaparra’s first game as a first baseman and he picked two of Furcal’s throws from shortstop out of the dirt and started a double play in the ninth with a backhand play.

Although the Diamondbacks didn’t score against four Dodger relievers, they accumulated 13 hits. Chad Tracy had four, including three doubles. Dodger left-hander Tim Hamulack pitched two scoreless innings, although he did hit Luis Gonzalez in the head with a pitch. Gonzalez stayed in the game.