Fire and falling back

Like the Dodgers’ rapid fall from the top of the standings, there was nothing subtle about the methods Brad Penny used to express himself Sunday.

He threw up his arms. He shook his head. He barked.

Penny could protest fate but not alter it, dropping his second consecutive decision in a 3-0, sweep-sealing defeat to the Arizona Diamondbacks at Dodger Stadium that had Manager Grady Little saying his team had “hit rock bottom.”

Shut out and held to seven hits by Brandon Webb, the Dodgers were blanked for the second time in three days and lost for the 12th time in 16 games.

The Dodgers, now four games back of first-place Arizona, will begin a three-game series in Cincinnati on Tuesday one defeat away from losing five games in a row for the first time this season.

“I feel like that game out there kind of bottomed us out,” Little said. “No matter where we go or where we play, there’s nowhere to go but up.”

The Dodgers showed little fervor Sunday, the notable exception being Penny (13-3).

When Mark Reynolds hit a line drive over his head in the fourth inning to drive in Conor Jackson and extend Arizona’s lead to 3-0, a seemingly exasperated Penny held out his arms. He repeated the gesture three batters later when denied an inning-ending strike-three call with Webb at the plate.

Penny said he asked home plate umpire Gary Cederstrom how close he was to the zone.

The answer: not very.

Penny raised his arms again, prompting Cederstrom to purposefully approach the mound.

Catcher Russell Martin rushed toward the potential conflict, as did Little, who emerged from the dugout “to make sure it didn’t get too far out of hand.”

It didn’t.

Penny said he was puzzled as to why the situation escalated as much as it did.

“If he watches the replay, he’s going to realize he was exaggerating,” Penny said. “He wasn’t in a good mood back there. He was shaking his head when I was asking for a new ball and stuff. Something may have been wrong with him because all I asked was where was it at.”

Whatever the details, the numbers indicate that Penny hasn’t been as dominating recently as he was earlier in the season.

Among the most dominant pitchers in baseball through June, Penny is 2-3 with a 4.71 earned-run average over his last six starts. He refused to blame the abdominal strain that forced him out of a game on July 26. He also said being hit in the fingers on a fifth-inning bunt attempt Sunday didn’t bother him.

The seemingly greater problem for the Dodgers is their offense, which left runners in scoring position in the third, fifth, seventh and eighth innings. During their four-game losing streak, they are one for 25 with runners in scoring position.

“Things aren’t turning out well for us right now,” Rafael Furcal said. “We’re getting guys on base, but we’re hitting balls right at people.”

Webb (11-8) threw only 103 pitches, something Juan Pierre said was a reflection of the 2006 Cy Young Award winner’s command, not the Dodgers’ impatience.

“You could’ve gone up there taking if you wanted to, but you would’ve been 0-2 in a hurry,” Pierre said.

Pierre discredited the theory that the Dodgers lacked intensity.

“We’re never a rah-rah type team anyway,” he said. “It’d be the same as it would be if we had won five games in a row.”

dylan.hernandez@latimes.com