Furcal’s Footwork Tangles Him Up

To the untrained eye, shortstop Rafael Furcal’s six errors are the result of errant throws and a shaky glove.

To Dodger coach Mariano Duncan, the source of the problem is Furcal’s feet.

They aren’t moving when the ball is hit. Rather than charging grounders, he is waiting flat-footed and letting the ball play him. When he does field a ball cleanly, he is so deep he has to rush the throw.

Duncan expressed his concerns Wednesday.

Furcal’s reaction?

“He asked to take extra ground balls and work on it,” Duncan said. “That made me happy.”

Furcal was General Manager Ned Colletti’s first free-agent signing, agreeing to a contract of $39 million for three years. The only shortstop making more money is Derek Jeter.

Nagging injuries to his right shoulder and the middle finger on his left hand have contributed to Furcal’s slow start with the bat as well as the glove. He is batting .202 and is hitless in his last 14 at-bats. He has scored 14 runs largely because he has drawn 13 walks.

“The team needs me on base, and I don’t feel right,” he said. “So I’m taking more walks.”

The finger injury -- which he said is all but healed -- has been especially bothersome when batting.

“I couldn’t hold the bat with two hands,” he said. “I couldn’t finish my swing.”

He believes the shoulder injury was caused by altering his swing because of the sore finger. Furcal’s physical problems began before the season when he had minor knee surgery that forced him to begin spring training late.

“It’s been frustrating,” he said. “I’ve tried to get healthy all year, but something else keeps happening.”

Furcal was not in the starting lineup Wednesday but is expected to play Friday at San Diego.

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Pitcher Brett Tomko, an accomplished artist, is taking requests. He spent the last several days sketching one of Brad Penny’s racehorses in charcoal and soon will paint a portrait of Manager Grady Little’s two grandsons.

Tomko raised $40,000 for charity the last two years selling his paintings at a gallery in San Francisco when he played for the Giants. He has done paintings of Scott Eyre’s horse and J.T. Snow’s dirt bike. He has been commissioned by Roger Clemens and Mike Matheny.

“I have a lot of fun with it,” he said. “I haven’t charged anybody. When we’re on the road I have four to five hours on flights to lock in. It’s a way to clear my mind.”

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Little said he talked to catcher Dioner Navarro about his failure to block a pitch by Penny with the bases loaded and two out in the seventh inning of Tuesday’s 14-inning loss.

Navarro tried to backhand the ball, and it glanced off his mitt and rolled to the backstop, allowing a run to score. Little said it was “definitely a ball that needs to be blocked.”

However, Navarro said that the pitch was a fastball that moved at the last instant, and that he could not have moved his body in front of it quickly enough.

“There isn’t a catcher in baseball who can block a 94-mph fastball that’s out of the strike zone like that one,” he said.

The play was ruled a wild pitch.