All doors remain closed to Dodgers

The signs of desperation were everywhere.

Grady Little spoke to his team for 20 minutes behind closed doors in a pregame meeting. Nomar Garciaparra was ejected for arguing balls and strikes. James Loney fell into the box seats chasing a foul ball he had no chance of catching.

And the end result was the same for the Dodgers, who lost for the 12th time in their last 15 games, this time by a 4-1 margin to the Houston Astros on Monday night at Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers sank a little deeper into fourth place, the distance between them and first-place Arizona extended to 6 1/2 games.

The postgame rhetoric was also more of the same, devoid of any solutions other than waiting for fortune to change.

The Dodgers’ struggles, second baseman Jeff Kent said, are “part of the game, part of the frustrations of the game. You go through them, you battle through them. We are a good team. We believe we have the capability to do good things.”

The Dodgers, again, couldn’t produce any offense. The run they put up in the fifth inning, by which time they already trailed by four runs, was only their 11th in their last eight games.

By then, Garciaparra was long gone. Called out on strikes to end a 1-2-3 fourth inning, Garciaparra slammed his bat on the ground and started jawing at plate umpire Tom Hallion. Little came out of the dugout to argue on Garciaparra’s behalf, and first base coach Mariano Duncan raced in to restrain the third baseman, who angrily pointed his bat at the umpire.

“There are definitely frustrations, obviously, with the way the season’s been going,” Garciaparra said.

The combination of an inept offense and wildness on the part of starting pitcher Chad Billingsley put the Dodgers at an early disadvantage.

Billingsley (7-4) threw 116 pitches in only five innings, giving up four runs, walking four and striking out seven.

“Maybe we’re trying to do too much,” Billingsley said. “I was falling behind. It was a battle, man. My mechanics started rushing, and I was falling behind hitters more.”

The Astros went ahead, 1-0, in the fourth and added three runs an inning later, with Jason Lane belting a two-run home run.

Astros starter Roy Oswalt limited the Dodgers to six hits and issued only two walks, one intentional, in eight innings.

The Dodgers were the beneficiaries of an errant call in the bottom of the first, as first base umpire Jerry Crawford didn’t see Lance Berkman kick first base when fielding a grounder by Loney. Berkman’s ensuing throw to second failed to get Rafael Furcal, putting runners on first and second with one out, but Kent grounded into a double play to end the inning. Kent is 0 for his last 23.

So much for Little’s pregame theory on how the Dodgers would be able to salvage their season.

“I don’t think it can get any worse,” he said. “It can only get better.”

Reminded that he said the Dodgers had “hit rock bottom” at the conclusion at the last homestand, Little said, “I did, but I was just telling 90% of the truth then. We’re a little further down the track.”

Little seemed to be leaning heavily on blind faith. He said he would believe in his starting pitchers “regardless of who the five are.”

Little said of the closed-door team meeting, “It was like a baseball chapel and I was the preacher.”

Reliever Joe Beimel said the meeting was uplifting in tone.

“He just reminded us that what we’re doing is pretty fun,” Beimel said. “He’s a pretty patient person. He puts things in perspective.”

Garciaparra was asked if a display of anger, like, say, someone flipping over a table, could help the team.

“Who said tables haven’t been flipped?” Garciaparra said.

dylan.hernandez@latimes.com