Hard to believe, but Dodgers lose 26-hitter

Dodgers Manager Grady Little could have rested his weary pitching staff Tuesday night and installed a pitching machine on the Dodger Stadium mound.

The result wouldn’t have been any different. And the process would have been a lot less painful for the Dodgers’ staff.

Teeing off in what amounted to extended batting practice, the Philadelphia Phillies pounded the Dodgers, 15-3, on 26 hits. The runs were a season high for an opponent and the hits tied the all-time Dodgers record since the club moved west in 1958, the year they gave up 26 hits in a game against the San Francisco Giants.

The Brooklyn Dodgers record was 27 hits, surrendered to the Cincinnati Reds in a 1940 game the Dodgers lost, 23-2.

“It was extraordinary to see it happen against us,” Little said.

Were there any positives to be taken from the long, frustrating night?

“Nobody got seriously injured,” Little said.

With the exception of some Dodgers’ egos.

Balls were flying all over the stadium Tuesday on a night when the fans in the stands caught one ball fewer that the Dodgers outfielders. Philadelphia hit four home runs (Ryan Howard hit his 23rd and 24th, Aaron Rowand his 13th and Pat Burrell his 12th), a triple (Shane Victorino) and six doubles (three by Rowand, two by Chase Utley and one by Michael Bourn).

Victorino and Rowand led the way with five hits each. Philadelphia starter J.D. Durbin (1-2), making only the third start of his major league career and second of this season, got the first, second and third hits of his big league career.

Mark Hendrickson gave up seven runs and 11 hits in three plus innings. Eric Stults surrendered four runs and eight hits in three innings. And Rudy Seanez gave up consecutive home runs in his one inning of work.

“It was one of those things where I went out there and didn’t have much,” Hendrickson said. “When I had to make out pitches, I didn’t execute those.”

Nobody can accuse Little of failing to give the inconsistent Hendrickson (4-5) a chance to stay in the starting rotation.

Little stayed with Hendrickson even though he gave up three runs and five hits in the first inning, Hendrickson yielding three consecutive hits and five in six batters.

Hendrickson wasn’t fooling anyone with a fastball that was clocked in the mid-80s and a breaking ball that barely cracked 70 mph.

Finally, mercifully, after Hendrickson had given up four more hits in the fourth, after center fielder Juan Pierre had to scrape himself off the warning track after crashing into the wall in futile pursuit of Victorino’s triple, Little located his misplaced hook, made his long-anticipated trudge to the mound and ended Hendrickson’s shell-shocked evening.

Hendrickson might have left his bad karma on the mound. The first pitch thrown by Stults, his replacement, was hit by Howard into the right-field seats, a two-run homer that made it 8-0.

Seanez, Jonathan Broxton and Joe Beimel didn’t fare much better in their efforts.

Even though they were facing, in Durbin, a pitcher who entered the game with a 13.50 earned-run average, the Dodgers were able to break through for only one run against him in six innings.

After scoring that run in the fourth, and loading the bases with one out, Little, again opting to stick with his pitcher, allowed Stults to bat.

“At that point, we were trying to put Band-Aids on it,” Little said. “We had to get as many innings out of that kid as we could. He was certainly able to help us [in terms of not] using the people we wanted to rest.”

Stults took a called third strike.

But why not let him hit? The pitching machine wasn’t ready, anyway.

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steve.springer@latimes.com