Dodgers Go for Best Ball Foursome

Greg Maddux can sit in the visitor’s dugout and appreciate being in the visitor’s dugout.

The rest of the Dodgers must take care of business for three days against Maddux’s former team, the hapless Chicago Cubs, before returning home and beginning a monumental four-game series against the division-rival San Diego Padres, who have hung that hapless label on the Dodgers all season.

That’s when Maddux gets to work, squaring off Friday against the Padres’ own seasoned September savior, David Wells. Manager Grady Little tweaked the rotation to send his best four starters at the Padres, who have beaten the Dodgers in 11 of 14 meetings this year.

At least it was assumed that Maddux, Chad Billingsley, Derek Lowe and Brad Penny were the Dodgers’ top four starters until the astounding performances of rookie left-handers Hong-Chih Kuo and Eric Stults, who combined to give up one run in 12 innings in two victories over the New York Mets last weekend.

Such are the surprises of a pennant race and a fertile farm system. Little went from trying to plug a rotation with more holes than thrift-store jeans to having a surplus of inventory in a matter of days.

“You can never have too much starting pitching,” Little said. “But we’re feeling better about our guys than we have in a while.”

Kuo is scheduled to start Thursday against the Cubs, but Stults might not get an opportunity to establish that his gem against the Mets on Sunday wasn’t a fluke. However, he does provide insurance against a recurrence of the strained muscle in Billingsley’s side that has kept him from pitching since Aug. 27.

Meanwhile, the Padres are making sure their designated Dodgers slayer, Jake Peavy, takes a turn against them. Peavy is 2-0 with a 1.29 earned-run average against the Dodgers and 6-14 with a 4.27 ERA against the rest of the league, so Manager Bruce Bochy moved up his start against the Cincinnati Reds to Wednesday so he can pitch the series finale at Dodger Stadium.

Rotation maneuvers are perhaps the most visible moves in the stretch-drive chess match. Little has been through this before, making the postseason with the Boston Red Sox in 2003 and missing it in 2002 despite the team’s 93 victories.

Much of Little’s contribution is behind the scenes, though. He has kept the Dodgers focused on the big picture -- a championship -- during a season of extraordinary daily ups and downs. General Manager Ned Colletti, who like Little is in his first year with the Dodgers, has noticed.

“I think he’s done a great job,” Colletti said. “Two of the most difficult criteria for a manager to succeed at are to keep a team even keeled when it struggles -- and Lord knows we’ve struggled -- and to integrate young players and have them be successful during a pennant race.

“I don’t know anyone in baseball who could have done better. Grady has been terrific and he’s done it in a place where he is brand new. He wasn’t known to the fans in L.A., he wasn’t someone they had embraced as a player or coach before.”

Meanwhile, Bochy has had the Dodgers -- or at least prominent rookies Andre Ethier and Russell Martin -- on his mind even while the Padres were playing the San Francisco Giants last weekend.

Asked about National League rookie-of-the-year candidates, he first mentioned Ethier, who is batting .325.

“It’d be hard not to vote for him,” Bochy said.

Reporters began naming other candidates and Bochy, a former catcher, stopped them when Martin’s name came up.

“What a job he’s done,” Bochy said.

Obviously his primary concern is getting the Padres to the playoffs, but Bochy also is boosting players for individual awards. He told the San Diego Union-Tribune that he plans to lobby out-of-town writers to vote for Padres closer Trevor Hoffman for the Cy Young Award.

Little likes his rookies and says Penny and Lowe deserve consideration for the Cy Young Award, but he won’t be doing any lobbying. If the Dodgers have learned anything about their easygoing manager, it’s that he is a master of simplifying seemingly complex situations.

“There have been days I’ve walked down to his office after a loss somewhat beside myself,” Colletti said. “And he gets that little grin on his face and says, ‘Everything is going to be all right. We’re going to figure it out.’

“Every day he’s managed the Dodgers, he’s been positive.”

Only 19 games remain, the next three against a last-place opponent on pace to lose 98 games and missing staff ace Carlos Zambrano, who has back spasms. A sweep would give the Dodgers a 6-4 record on a trip that early on threatened to be a disaster.

“We like where we are and a lot of it has to do with our starting pitching,” Little said. “All of a sudden, we’ve got some choices. Some positive choices.”

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steve.henson@latimes.com

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Stretch run

The Dodgers face San Diego this weekend with the National League West lead on the line:

*--* NL WEST RACE W L Pct. GB DODGERS 76 67 531 San Diego 74 68 521 1 1/2 San Francisco 72 71 503 4

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*--* UP NEXT * DODGERS AT CHICAGO Today, Wednesday, Thursday * SAN DIEGO AT CINCINNATI Today, Wednesday, Thursday THE SHOWDOWN * PADRES AT DODGERS Friday, 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, 7 p.m. Sunday, 1 p.m.; Monday, 7 p.m.

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*--* REMAINING OPPONENTS DODGERS G W-L San Diego G W-L Chicago 3 1-2 Cincinnati 3 2-1 San Diego 4 3-11 Dodgers 4 11-3 Pittsburgh 3 5-2 Arizona 7 5-7 Arizona 3 8-7 Pittsburgh 3 2-1 Colorado 3 12-4 St. Louis 3 2-1 San Fran. 3 10-6 Total 39-32 Total 22-13

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