He Makes Point, and It’s Wrong

Disintegrating right before our eyes, the Dodgers’ season has slid from hapless to helpless, and is now mere hours from hopeless.

On a boiling Wednesday afternoon, it even touched upon humiliating.

Brad Penny, the giant starting pitcher who has been an even bigger baby, once again publicly tried to blame someone else for his mistakes.

But this time, his target tried to fight back.

In a dugout encounter that looked like a schoolyard standoff, a pointing Penny and an approaching Kenny Lofton were separated and restrained before they had a chance to beat the bejabbers out of each other.

Penny was mad because he felt Lofton lazily played an apparent third-inning single by San Diego’s Dave Roberts into a double.

Lofton was mad because Penny, as usual, decided to air this grievance in public.

By the sixth inning, both guys were gone.

By the seventh inning, most of the fans were gone.

By the end of the afternoon, the Dodgers’ season seemed gone, as they lost for the 13th time in 14 games, a 10-3 defeat to the Padres.

Those Dodgers faithful who want the team to horde prospects instead of making a trade to help them now?

Get ready for two months of this.

Ineptitude. Indignation. Irrelevancy.

Grady Little, a career winner, sat alone in the manager’s office, alone in front of his locker, staring.

“Never been in it this deep,” he said, shaking his head.

He had just scolded the team in a postgame meeting, but he should have another chat with Penny, a man desperately in need of a mirror.

Earlier this year, Penny yelled at Little on the mound while being removed after an awful outing in Atlanta.

Then, this month, Penny questioned his teammates’ effort after another awful outing in St. Louis.

And now, this, a tantrum over one base hit in a string of six consecutive base hits against him.

Penny was mad because he thought Lofton, who has struggled defensively, should have held Roberts to a single on a ball that rolled in front of him.

That was probably a fair assessment.

What wasn’t fair is that Penny didn’t get mad at himself for, one batter earlier, allowing a double to .152-hitting Jake Peavy, who later even homered off him.

And he didn’t get mad at himself for allowing a leadoff single to Geoff Blum, he of the .298 on-base percentage.

And he didn’t get mad at himself for putting his poor-hitting team in a hole for the second time in three starts, this All-Star game starter allowing four or more runs in four of his last seven starts.

“It’s not acceptable, and he knows it,” Little said of Penny’s outburst.

The pitcher apologized to Lofton and agreed with his manager, but this is getting old.

Brad Penny is being paid like an ace, and he needs to act like it.

These players have enough folks pointing fingers at them -- all 10 of mine are outstretched -- without pointing them at each other.

Not that the Dodgers can afford it, but a suspension for Penny wouldn’t be too harsh.

Said Penny: “I was just frustrated out there, it happens. I’ve talked to [Lofton], smoothed things out, everything’s all right.”

Said Lofton: “In a losing streak, guys get upset, it’s over.”

No, if the Dodgers don’t do something, it’s just beginning, a second annual 60-game march through the valley of the shadow of the Angels.

They can use their tickets-sold math to hide the fact that the stadium will be less than half empty.

They can benefit from the creative editing by partner FSN Prime Ticket, which amazingly did not show the third inning in Wednesday’s night replay telecast, yet found time to show fans singing during the seventh-inning stretch.

But if nothing is done to help this team -- now -- then nothing can hide the erosion of the Dodgers brand, and nothing can keep that erosion off the legacy of Frank and Jamie McCourt.

“We have to do something, we need to make an adjustment, attitude or whatever,” Penny said, later adding, “We can’t keep going on like this. I’m miserable.”

Even the one thing the Dodgers have done right has gone wrong.

Remember how they installed all new seats last winter? Lofton and others have complained that during day games, it’s hard to pick up fly balls off the pastel yellow field-level seats.

Lofton contends this led to his problems with Roberts’ hit Wednesday, saying “It’s always tough in day games with these bad seats.”

Said Dodgers spokeswoman Camille Johnston: “We have taken this very seriously, but there is no quick-fix here and none of the potential solutions that are being considered can be completed during a road trip.”

Hmmm. Wait a minute. There is one scenario in which there would be no glare from the seats.

If fans were sitting in them!

But many of those seats will stay empty unless Nomar Garciaparra and Jeff Kent return healthy, and unless Ned Colletti gives them some help.

Both could still happen. Colletti appears to be waiting for assurances on the first part before proceeding with the second part.

If nothing happens, duck.

Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Plaschke, go to latimes.com/plaschke.