Dodgers keep on falling

The timing of the hit or how the game ended didn’t lessen Dodgers Manager Grady Little’s public appraisal of the ball Mark Sweeney lined into right field Tuesday night.

With the Dodgers down to their last three outs, Sweeney got a hit with a runner in scoring position -- something the team failed to do in eight other similar chances in a 7-4 loss to the Houston Astros at Dodger Stadium and something the team has done only five times in 88 such opportunities this month.

But Sweeney, a pinch-hitter who was picked up last week in a trade with the San Francisco Giants, made a mental blunder that resulted in the game’s final out. Appearing to lose track of the number of outs, Sweeney strayed too far from first base when Juan Pierre popped up. Catcher Brad Ausmus caught the ball in foul territory and threw out Sweeney to end the game. Shea Hillenbrand was on second base.

Like that, the day that started with the Dodgers losing third baseman Nomar Garciaparra to the disabled list culminated with them losing for the 13th time in 16 games.

“Those are the kinds of things that happen and they happen to the best of players,” Little said. “It was one of those brain cramps that all of us get from time to time.”

But with the Dodgers in the midst of a seemingly unstoppable free fall out of contention, Little was willing to settle for any minor victory, in this case, Sweeney’s hit.

“That was a big hit he had,” Little said. “We were sitting there, waiting for somebody to get that hit.”

Sweeney wasn’t available for comment.

The result left the fourth-place Dodgers 6 1/2 games behind first-place Arizona in the National League West and hovering a solitary game over .500, a place they haven’t been in since the fifth game of the season. A loss today will condemn the Dodgers (60-59) to dropping their eighth series in a row.

And for the next two weeks, the club will be without Garciaparra, who was put on the 15-day disabled list because of a strained left calf. Garciaparra was hitting only .250 in August.

With or without Garciaparra, who is batting .404 with runners in scoring position, the Dodgers are struggling to drive in runs these days.

They began the game four for 79 this month with runners in scoring position, a statistic Little recited before the game without the aid of a cheat sheet.

Starter Matt Albers picked up his second win over the Dodgers in as many months, limiting them to three runs and seven hits over 6 2/3 innings. Albers blanked the Dodgers over five innings July 25 in Houston.

The runs charged to Albers were the products of isolated displays of power.

Matt Kemp blasted a solo home run to right-center field in the first inning that gave the Dodgers their only lead. A double by Jeff Kent in the sixth drove in Pierre from first base. Hillenbrand, Garciaparra’s former Boston teammate and replacement at third base, tripled in the seventh and scored when Olmedo Saenz grounded out.

Brett Tomko gave up only one run in the first five innings, but he unraveled in the sixth. The Astros scored six runs and had six hits that inning, in which Tomko allowed the four batters he faced to reach base. He was charged with five runs, making the start statistically his worst since moving back into the rotation in mid-July.

dylan.hernandez@latimes.com