Hendrickson a stand-up stand-in for Dodgers

One mile, six feet, nine inches high.

Mark Hendrickson was indeed a towering figure for the Dodgers, filling in for injured Jason Schmidt and pitching into the sixth inning of an 8-1 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Thursday at Coors Field.

The tallest Dodger ever continued to raise his stature on the staff, giving up one run in 5 2/3 innings, making two excellent fielding plays and driving in a run. His earned-run average after three relief appearances and one start is 1.62, a far cry from the 4.93 mark he brought into the season.

The Dodgers (11-5) finished a four-game trip by winning in their usual fashion, relying on pitching and defense while generating plenty of offense despite only one extra-base hit.

Hendrickson credits sports psychologist Ken Ravizza for his improvement, and spoke to him after the game. One of Ravizza’s techniques is to have a player pick out something in the stadium and look at it frequently as a reminder to relax, regain focus and concentrate on the next pitch.

“For me, it’s a piece of dirt on the mound,” Hendrickson said. “I look at it and it puts me in a good state of mind. A bad call or an error or a bad pitch, I can put anything behind me.”

Manager Grady Little expected Hendrickson to reach about 75 pitches before tiring, and that turned out to be the precise number he threw. The Dodgers led, 5-1, when Little went with Chin-hui Tsao after Garrett Atkins singled to score Willy Taveras.

“He’d done exactly what we wanted him to do,” Little said of Hendrickson.

Tsao, who for several years was the Rockies’ top prospect, walked Matt Holiday, then struck out Jeff Baker on a 95-mph fastball.

Relievers Joe Beimel and Jonathan Broxton finished off the Rockies, and the Dodgers added three runs in the ninth. The last two came on Jeff Kent’s double, the only extra-base hit for either team.

It was widely predicted that the Dodgers wouldn’t hit many home runs. But their opponents aren’t hitting them either. Nomar Garciaparra hit the only homer of the four-game trip in the fifth inning Monday against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Dodgers pitchers have gone 39 1/3 innings without giving up a homer.

“I like the way we are going about our at-bats,” Little said. “We aren’t throwing away plate appearances. We’re taking a walk when we can get it. The power will come when it comes.”

Little has a similar shrug-and-smile approach regarding Hendrickson. With a scheduled day off Monday, the left-hander’s spot might not come up again until April 28. And Schmidt might be back by then.

Another option is to start Hendrickson on Wednesday to give Randy Wolf and Brad Penny an extra day of rest. But Little is inclined to use Hendrickson out of the bullpen and keep the other starters on a five-day rotation.

For his part, Hendrickson is shrugging about being shuffled from the bullpen to the rotation and back. As recently as spring training he got uptight about it. Now he lapses into Ravizza-speak.

“It’s just another thing that I have no control over,” Hendrickson said. “I can execute my pitches, that’s all. I can do that starting or relieving.”

steve.henson@latimes.com