Little’s tinkering tailors another win

ST. LOUIS -- The Dodgers’ lineup is no Murderers’ Row. But it’s just about killing Grady Little.

Five times in the last week the Dodgers’ manager watched his team go into the ninth inning without a run. Four times it wound up losing.

The exception came Friday when James Loney broke up a scoreless pitchers’ duel with a two-run home run, carrying the punchless Dodgers to their second consecutive win, a 2-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.

“It’s hard,” Little said. “We’ve tried everything we can to get it going and headed in the right direction.”

Friday he tried elevating Loney, who didn’t even make the club out of spring training, to the third spot in the order. And the 23-year-old, often scorned by the Dodgers for a lack of power, responded with the home run, and another towering blast down the line that just hooked foul.

“There’s times where I know I can hit the ball out of the park. Just the way my swing feels,” Loney said. “That was one of those times.

“I go up there thinking I want to come through every time. Just with that confidence you’re better than that guy out there. You have to have that.”

Lately, however, it has been hard for Loney to be confident. He began Friday hitting .174 with no runs batted in or runs scored in August after batting .385 and contributing nearly a run a game in the first month after his recall from the minors.

“Working on my swing. Watching some video. Mostly getting good pitches to hit,” Loney said when asked how he’s turning it around. “There was a few times I wasn’t getting my foot down in time. That’s my main thing. I have to get that down and be able to see the ball better.”

That was apparently enough to convince Little, who completely redid his lineup before Thursday’s extra-innings win in Cincinnati, to redo it again in St. Louis, making room for Loney near the top of the order. And all that tinkering has paid off with two wins after a six-game losing streak, both victories coming on last-inning homers.

“I feel confident with James up there,” Little said. “He can give you . . . a chance to make things happen. He’s got a chance to be a run producer.

“I think one day you’ll see him in the middle of the lineup regularly. And that day might be now.”

Producing runs, after all, has been a challenge of late. Friday the Dodgers rolled over for right-hander Adam Wainwright, who shut them out for 8 1/3 innings, giving up only an infield hit through the first 4 2/3 and letting only two Dodgers get as far as second base.

But it all unraveled in the ninth when Russell Martin’s bad-hop grounder eluded third baseman Scott Rolen for a one-out single. Two pitches later Loney drove an errant fastball into the seats behind right-center field.

For seven innings the Dodgers’ Brad Penny was nearly as good. After a rocky first in which he walked two and appeared to have trouble getting loose, Penny allowed only two runners to get to second, threw first-pitch strikes to 16 of the last 18 hitters he faced and retired the last eight in order.

Thanks to the Dodgers’ feeble offense, however, all that got him was a no-decision.

“The whole year they’ve been scoring runs for me,” Penny said. “There comes a time where they’re not going to score runs and you just have to keep your team in the game. Like today.

“Tough luck for [Wainwright]. Because he threw a great game. He didn’t deserve to get a loss.”

And he almost didn’t, with the Cardinals mounting a ninth-inning rally of their own, scoring on a walk and two singles before Takashi Saito finally closed the door, winning an eight-pitch battle to strike out Adam Kennedy with the tying and winning runs on base for his 29th save.

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kevin.baxter@latimes.com