A Blue Streak That Has L.A. Talking

Tommy Lasorda, the face and blustery charm of the Los Angeles Dodgers for four decades, was in the Carnegie Deli in Manhattan on Wednesday when a voice rose above the lunchtime clatter.

“Hey,” called a man from behind the counter, in a city where both local teams -- the Yankees and Mets -- lead their divisions, “the Dodgers are going great! Congratulations!”

That Lasorda was there for lunch was itself a sign the Dodgers had turned for the better. He had sworn off solid food near the end of July, during two weeks in which the Dodgers had lost eight consecutive games and 13 of 14 overall, and landed meekly at the bottom of the National League West.

“I wasn’t going to eat until they won a game,” he said.

He claimed his hunger strike lasted 2 1/2 days. A few blended protein shakes later, along with five trades in eight days by first-year General Manager Ned Colletti, the Dodgers began an improbable and near-historic climb to first place. They won 17 of 18 games for the first time since 1899, when the franchise was based in Brooklyn and known as the Superbas.

Vin Scully, the eloquent voice of the Dodgers, said he has heard the buzz too, lately.

“Everywhere I go,” he said, “people want to talk about the Dodgers.”

From 7th Avenue to Stadium Way, the Dodgers appear relevant again.

Despite a lopsided loss Wednesday afternoon at Dodger Stadium, they lead the NL West by three games, and they begin a nine-game trip tonight at San Francisco having revived their season and re-engaged their considerable fan base. Already leading the National League in attendance, averaging nearly 46,000 ticket sales a game, the Dodgers drew about 30,000 walk-up customers during last weekend’s series against the San Francisco Giants, according to team spokesperson Camille Johnston, three times what they ordinarily draw.

In the front office, where recent seasons were beset by staff turnover, shifting philosophies and fleeting success, employees now snack on bowls of ice cream. The tradition began in 1983 with former owner Peter O’Malley, who celebrated victories that put the Dodgers in first place or extended their lead with the mid-afternoon socials.

After several days in first place recently and another dose of chocolate ice cream, first-year Manager Grady Little revealed his taste for butter pecan, which arrived after a win against the Florida Marlins.

“I see so many good things with this organization now,” said Lasorda, 78, who managed the Dodgers for 21 seasons and has served in a number of executive capacities since, most recently as special advisor to owner Frank McCourt.

On July 27, the day after they’d lost their eighth consecutive game to fall 7 1/2 games behind the first-place San Diego Padres, the Dodgers appeared destined for another failed season. Since 1988, when they won their last World Series title, they’d qualified for the playoffs three times but won only one postseason game. In 2005, the second season under McCourt ownership and what would be the last for general manager Paul DePodesta and field manager Jim Tracy, they’d lost 91 games, finishing fourth in the weak NL West.

After an ugly off-season in which first Tracy and then DePodesta were fired, leading to the searches that brought in Colletti and Little, the Dodgers were again testing new values and players. Colletti favored veteran players on short-term contracts who would steady the lineup until the arrival of well-regarded minor league prospects. Nomar Garciaparra, a former batting champion raised in Whittier, became an All-Star at first base. Six-time All-Star Kenny Lofton, who turned 39 in May, joined high-end free-agent Rafael Furcal at the front of the batting order, and hit better than .300.

But Bill Mueller, another former batting champion, and Eric Gagne, the Cy Young Award-winning Dodgers closer, were lost to season-ending injuries. By the end of July, both Garciaparra and second baseman Jeff Kent had spent time on the disabled list. And, despite breakout seasons by catcher Russell Martin, left fielder Andre Ethier and reliever Jonathan Broxton, all rookies, the Dodgers had begun a hard, steady fall into last place.

Colletti, whose career spanned 24 years with the Chicago Cubs and Giants, began the sometimes-cool, sometimes-frantic process of reworking the roster at midseason. When a key trading deadline expired at 1 p.m. July 31, Colletti had completed his last deal three minutes before.

From the Cubs he had added starting pitcher Greg Maddux, whose first Dodgers win was the 328th of his career, tying him for 11th on the game’s all-time list. From the Tampa Bay Devil Rays he had added shortstop Julio Lugo, who with the Dodgers would play almost everywhere, but rarely shortstop. From the Atlanta Braves he had added switch-hitting third baseman Wilson Betemit.

The losing stopped and the winning began in that time, when Garciaparra and Kent also returned from their injuries, and as Maddux inspired the pitching staff with his humble, dedicated work ethic and mound precision.

“The losing streak after the All-Star break woke people up,” Kent said, “in the sense that if we don’t do anything we’re going to waste away our season.

“What is it? I can’t say. Ask me in three or four weeks. Maybe I can give you a better answer. I think it was a collection of things that gave guys a sense of team confidence, of self-confidence. And, flat out, things started to happen for us.”

From July 13 to July 26, the Dodgers were last in the National League in wins (one), runs per game (2.1), batting average (.222) and home runs (six) and were third-to-last in team earned-run average (5.41), according to STATS, LLC. Beginning July 28 and ending Wednesday, they ranked first in wins (17), batting average (.297) and ERA (2.26), second in runs a game (5.5) and sixth in home runs (20).

“It instills some confidence in that room in there,” Little said Wednesday, nodding toward the clubhouse, “as to what we’re capable of doing.”

Garciaparra flicked his head sideways, letting those 32 games since July 13 roll off. “That’s baseball,” he said. “We play every day. And there’s a lot of games left.”

Later Wednesday evening, Colletti sat in his office and spoke with a tight-lipped assurance, expressions of his hard-knocks Chicago upbringing.

“You learn that nothing lasts forever,” he said. “Be it good, or be it bad. You just hope the slumps end quicker. I give credit to Grady and his staff. It wasn’t easy for them, either. We kept saying, ‘Play hard, play smart and something good will happen. We’ll win a game, then maybe we’ll win a second game, and then maybe a third game.’ ”

By Wednesday, Colletti had spent five weeks in the extreme, the worst of the Dodgers followed by the best of them, and L.A. had been carried along in both, now wondering what the final six weeks would bring.