Rest Is Tiring to the Dodgers

Ballplayers are union workers, it’s true. But time off isn’t mandated in the collective bargaining agreement, especially on game days.

No matter. It appears the Dodgers will get all the rest they need this season.

With regulars Jeff Kent, Rafael Furcal and Kenny Lofton watching from the bench, the Dodgers lost rather quietly to the Houston Astros, 8-5, Wednesday night at Minute Maid Park.

A measure of lethargy was to be expected so soon after a 14-inning game that lasted nearly five hours. But the Astros played in that one too, and their entire starting lineup reported for duty 19 hours later, including 40-year-old second baseman Craig Biggio and 37-year-old catcher Brad Ausmus.

Biggio, in fact, had one of the Astros’ 13 hits and scored a run while Ausmus had two hits, drove in a run and scored a run.

Maybe that’s the difference between an Astro team defending the National League championship and a Dodger team struggling to find an identity.

Or maybe it’s just a difference in the philosophies of Dodger Manager Grady Little and his Astro counterpart, Phil Garner.

After all, it was Little who wrote out a lineup that had Oscar Robles at second base instead of Kent, Ramon Martinez at shortstop instead of Furcal and Jason Repko in center field instead of Lofton. And of course Little knows his team is off today, able to lounge around San Diego before beginning a three-game series Friday against the Padres.

The Dodgers certainly ought to be full of zest by then.

“These aren’t short-range decisions, they are long-range decisions,” Little said. “If you can give a player a break, it’s good for them.”

He considers J.D. Drew Exhibit A. A week ago Little rested the right fielder the game before an off day. Fortified by the 48-hour break, Drew homered in three of the next four games.

But when the players who normally bat leadoff, second and cleanup sit at once, aren’t you essentially giving away a game?

“The lineup had nothing to do with the outcome,” Little said. “Their starting pitcher had a better game than our starting pitcher, that’s the bottom line.”

Maybe when Odalis Perez (3-1) is facing the Astros, the game is as good as gone before it starts. The left-hander was shelled for 11 hits and seven runs -- six earned -- in 4 1/3 innings.

Yet he has pitched so poorly against the Astros -- against whom he is 0-4 -- that his earned-run average against them actually dropped from 13.15 to 12.91.

“I don’t know a way to get this team out,” he said. “Warming up I felt great. Sometimes when you think you have your best stuff, that is the day you mess up.”

The Astros scored once in the second inning, then put up three runs in the third on Biggio’s single, a double by Willy Taveras and a home run by Lance Berkman. Perez gave up two runs in the fourth and one more run in the fifth before Little lifted him.

There was no day off for the Dodger bullpen. Franquelis Osoria had to pitch 2 1/3 innings after going two innings Tuesday and Tim Hamulack went 1 1/3 innings after pitching one inning Tuesday.

“I feel bad for that reason,” Perez said. “It would have been nice to go six, seven or eight innings and give those guys a rest.”

Wandy Rodriguez (4-0) gave the Astros just such an outing, the only damage a two-run home run by Repko. The Dodgers (10-12) scored three in the ninth against mop-up reliever Ezequiel Astacio, but Kent lined to third as a pinch-hitter.

“It’s a matter of time before some of those balls fall in for us,” Drew said. “It’s way too early in the season to dwell on the negative.”

But not too soon for a respite.