Struggles don’t worry Gonzalez

Two facts about left fielder Luis Gonzalez were revealed during a short, cordial exchange in front of his locker Saturday.

1) He wasn’t asked many hard questions by the media that covered him in Arizona when he was the Diamondbacks fan favorite for many years.

2) His reputation as a cooperative, consummate professional is well-deserved.

Gonzalez acknowledged that he has struggled defensively. In the first four games, he dropped a fly ball, didn’t get to two others that appeared catchable, and runners have taken extra bases on his soft throws.

Yet he appeared surprised that he would be asked repeatedly about those failings, and that they would be written about.

“It wasn’t like this in Arizona,” he said. “Are you going to ask me about this every day?”

Then he went on to give every question a thoughtful answer.

“It’s one of those spells, like a hitting slump,” he said. “I’m embarrassed this week. But I’ve gone through a lot in my career and I’ll be all right.”

Gonzalez made only one error last season, which he said he doesn’t remember. And he says he doesn’t believe that at 39 he is suddenly too old and too slow to play the outfield.

“I’m not blessed with a plus arm,” he said. “I’ve had both shoulders operated on and had Tommy John surgery. But when I get in my groove, you’ll see I get to balls. I’m not worried, and I don’t think my teammates are worried.

“Everybody thinks I’m a defensive liability right now. I’m really not.”

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No wonder Manager Grady Little devised the rotation to make sure Randy Wolf gets to start against the Giants.

The left-hander owns the highest strikeout rate against Barry Bonds of any pitcher who has faced him at least 20 times.

In 20 plate appearances against Wolf, Bonds is two for 14 with eight strikeouts. The strikeout percentage of 57% is much higher than that of the next-closest pitchers, Randy Myers and Paul Assenmacher, who each struck out Bonds in 32.4% of his at-bats against them. Both pitchers are retired.

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There isn’t an official platoon in right field, Little says, but it looks like one so far. And a pretty good one.

Left-handed-hitting Andre Ethier came into the season as the everyday right fielder, and why not. He batted a team-high .308 last season and didn’t need to sit against left-handers, batting .375 against them.

But the right-handed-hitting Matt Kemp made the team, and Little doesn’t want the 22-year-old prospect to get stale on the bench. Kemp will start today against left-hander Barry Zito.

So, a platoon it is, for the time being.

“It’s worked out that way because of the scheduling,” Little said. “I wouldn’t assume that’s the way it will remain for a long period of time.”

Kemp is three for nine; Ethier was zero for five in his first two games but doubled and walked Saturday.

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Opening day is about to give way to the home opener, and still shortstop Rafael Furcal’s sprained ankle is giving him too much pain to play. The Dodgers are making sure he’s close to 100% because they remember last April, when Furcal played on an injured leg and batted .198 for the month.... Jeff Kent’s two-run double in the fifth inning gave him 1,385 runs batted in during his career. He passed Joe Medwick and Dwight Evans and ranks 65th on the all-time list.... Takashi Saito notched his third save in as many tries, although this was the first one in which he retired the side without running into trouble. He gave up five hits in his first two appearances.

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steve.henson@latimes.com