Dodgers are a little short

By Kevin Baxter

Aug. 1, 2007 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

On a day when they learned their former All-Star left-hander could be out for the season and their former All-Star second baseman could be out for the week, the Dodgers also learned one other thing before Tuesday’s 3-1 loss to the San Francisco Giants: The cavalry won’t be coming.

Frustrated in his attempts to add a power hitter or shore up an injury-plagued starting rotation, General Manager Ned Colletti made just one deal before Tuesday afternoon’s trade deadline, sending infielder Wilson Betemit to the Yankees for middle reliever Scott Proctor.

Then Colletti served notice that it’s up the players to win with what’s left.

“You can’t always come and change the whole face of the club. From time to time [winning’s] got to come from within,” he said. “I like the players on this team. I like how they’ve played together. And it has an opportunity to win. Whether it does or not, they’ll decide that when they play.”

The Dodgers certainly did their share of winning in the season’s first four months, which is why they began Tuesday tied with Arizona for first place in the National League West. But they got there with nine victories from Randy Wolf, who may not pitch again this season.

And Tuesday they were also without second baseman Jeff Kent, who not only started the day second in the majors with a .447 average in July but also sidelined indefinitely because of a strained hamstring.

What’s more, while the Dodgers have been losing players at an alarming pace, the defending division champion Padres have been adding them, boosting their depth by picking up outfielder Rob Mackowiak, infielder Morgan Ensberg and reliever Wilfredo Ledezma on Tuesday, just three of nine acquisitions they’ve made in the last week.

“I’ve got nothing to do with the Padres,” Colletti said. “I’ve got to worry about the Dodgers.

“I believe we can [win]. I truly believe that there’s more to see with this club.”

What Colletti and the Dodgers saw Tuesday, however, was a repeat of something they’ve seen far too often: pitcher Brad Penny losing his temper, then his control. And that, plus another punchless effort from the Dodgers offense, caused them to lose the ballgame and their share of the division lead for the first time since the All-Star break.

Pitching before a sellout crowd of 56,000 -- the first of three sellouts for Barry Bonds and the Giants -- Penny cruised through the first five innings, giving up just a run and four hits while getting 11 of his 15 outs on ground balls.

But after walking Bonds on a 3-and-1 pitch to start the sixth, Penny couldn’t hide his displeasure with Ed Hickox, throwing his arms in the air and shouting at the plate umpire, who took off his mask and shouted back.

“It was a ball. It was up,” Penny (13-2) said afterward.

And he missed the strike zone on the next five pitches too, walking Ryan Klesko for his season-high fifth base on balls of the game. And when Bengie Molina and Pedro Felix followed with singles, San Francisco had a 3-1 lead and the Dodgers were on the way to their fifth loss in their last six games.

“We got a good performance from Brad Penny but we let it go to waste,” Manager Grady Little said. “[He] pitched . . . good enough to win. But not tonight.”

That’s largely because his teammates, who loaded the bases in the first and pushed across their only run in the second, managed just two hits the rest of the way against Noah Lowry (12-7) and three relievers.

kevin.baxter@latimes.com

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Moments in time

A pitch-by-pitch account of Barry Bonds’ at bats Tuesday night against the Dodgers:

FIRST INNING

Man on first, two out

• 0-0: Breaking ball strike

• 0-1: Inside fastball, strike

• 0-2: Breaking ball, check swing

strike three.

Facing Brad Penny

THIRD INNING