Dodgers waste no time in unraveling in 12-2 defeat

ST. LOUIS -- What happens when you combine a stoppable force with a movable object?

You wind up with a game like the Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinals played Sunday, one that featured 14 runs, 27 hits, nine pitchers and 280 total pitches.

Not surprisingly, the Dodgers were on the short end of all those numbers, with the 12-2 drubbing the most lopsided decision in a two-week skid in which they have fallen from first to fourth in the National League West, a season-high six games off the pace.

It has been only a week since Manager Grady Little said his team had bottomed out following a three-game sweep by the Arizona Diamondbacks. But those look like halcyon days now. Since then the Dodgers have reached several new lows, culminating in Sunday’s debacle in which the team failed in all facets of the game.

“Everything works together,” Little said. “You have to have everything to be working to win ballgames. And when you lose, it takes everybody out there. Pitchers, hitters.

“And it’s easy to lose. It’s tough to win.”

The Dodgers have taken the easy way lately, losing 11 of their last 14, falling to three games over .500 for the first time since April 14.

Their pitching staff -- a.k.a. the movable object -- which hasn’t gotten a win from a starter in more than two weeks, watched the Cardinals pound out a season-high 18 hits Sunday, including two home runs and two doubles.

And the Dodgers’ offense -- the stoppable force -- managed only one minor rally, scoring twice in the second inning on a walk, a triple and a sacrifice fly. After that the Dodgers were one for 14 with runners on base and 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position, helping the Cardinals’ Anthony Reyes (2-11) win for only the second time since the World Series.

Yet, for the Dodgers, the game nearly qualifies as a breakout performance considering it marked only the third time in nine games the team had scored multiple runs. The Cardinals’ 12 runs in eight innings, conversely, gave them more than the Dodgers’ combined total in the last week.

All of which left Little, who has changed the names on the lineup card and has threatened to change the names on the roster, warning of even more changes.

“There are too many people in our lineup who are underachieving. They’re not reaching the expectations that should be held to them,” he said. “Something needs to be done. Because this isn’t good enough.”

Although some would argue the turning point in Sunday’s game was the national anthem, the deciding blow came a few moments later when the Cardinals’ Ryan Ludwick got to Mark Hendrickson for a three-run home run, leaving the Dodgers facing a deficit they’ve bettered only three times this month.

Hendrickson was all but undressed in the third inning when St. Louis sent 10 batters to the plate, scoring five times. The Cardinals finally drove the Dodgers starter from the game on David Eckstein’s line drive back through the box that left the pitcher looking a little like Charlie Brown, with his glove flying one way, the ball ricocheting off his hand and flying another while three Cardinals runners were flying around the bases.

“I think about that point in the game he didn’t feel anything,” Little said of Hendrickson (4-7), who lost for the seventh time in his last eight decisions as a starter.

If his teammates are feeling anything, it’s likely to be pressure. With six weeks left in the season, they need to make up a game a week just to tie for the division lead. And they’ll have to climb over three teams to get there.

“We just have to win games,” outfielder Luis Gonzalez said. “We’re running out of time. . . and we have to find a way to turn things around.

“If we can find some kind of lightning in the bottle and turn it around and get it going, there’s always hope.”

kevin.baxter@latimes.com