Patience Pays Off for Dodgers

Finally, Jae Seo has a victory for the Dodgers.

That it seemed to take a while in a 3-0 victory over the San Diego Padres on Friday night shouldn’t come as any great surprise. Everything the Dodger right-hander does seems to take forever.

His delivery, interrupted by a pause in his windup, takes a while to complete. His pitches, mostly sliders and changeups with an occasional sneaky fastball, can take a while to get to the plate.

His first season with the Dodgers after four years with the New York Mets, has taken awhile to develop. He entered Friday’s game at Petco Park with an 0-2 record and 7.64 earned-run average.

His last outing was the second shortest of his career. Seo lasted only 3 2/3 innings against the Arizona Diamondbacks, giving up nine hits and five earned runs.

And even in Friday’s triumphant performance, Seo took a while to find a groove. He threw 24 pitches in the first inning, giving up two walks, surrendered two hits in the second inning, and walked two more in the third.

But that was it. The Padres, perhaps numbed by the agonizing pace of Seo’s deliveries, never could break through. Dodger relievers Tim Hamulack, Takashi Saito and Danys Baez completed a two-hitter, and Baez got his seventh save.

“[Seo] pitched a heck of a game,” Dodger Manager Grady Little said. “You like to see him maximize his pitch use the way he did.”

Asked what the difference was Friday as opposed to Seo’s earlier outings, Little said, “He had better location with his pitches. He’s not a guy who is going to blow anybody away with his velocity. But his location was good. Or at least better.”

Said Seo through an interpreter, “The difference was just the level of concentration. I spoke to [Little] three days ago and he encouraged me to just pitch inning by inning.”

As far the Dodgers were concerned, Seo’s turnaround was worth waiting for, his victory breaking a two-game losing streak to improve the club’s record to 11-12.

The Padres, the defending NL West champions, have lost four in a row and are already at the bottom of the division at 8-14.

For the first four innings Friday, Padre right-hander Chris Young (2-2) matched zeros with Seo. Young retired the first seven Dodger hitters and 12 of the first 13, the exception being catcher Dioner Navarro, who singled up the middle with one out in the third.

Young could not have offered a greater contrast to Seo. At 6 feet 10, he is 10 inches taller than the Dodger right-hander. And a lot faster. No waiting for Young’s delivery. And no fooling around when it gets there. Young sticks mostly to a fastball that consistently pushes the speed gun over 90 mph.

Nevertheless, the Dodgers broke through in the fifth after Nomar Garciaparra opened with a double that sailed over the head of center fielder Mike Cameron and bounced off the fence in right-center. After Jose Cruz Jr. walked, Navarro hit a sinking liner for a single to left to score Garciaparra.

The Dodgers scored a pair of runs in the eighth off Padre reliever Alan Embree. After consecutive singles by Rafael Furcal and Kenny Lofton, J.D. Drew, the team’s RBI leader, singled up the middle to drive in both of them. Drew has 17 RBIs.

Navarro had two hits and even stole a base, the first of his career.

And don’t forget his effort behind the plate, Little said.

“When you have a shutout like that,” Little said, “it has as lot to do with the catcher.”

The credit may be shared, but the win goes to Seo.

Finally.