CAN’T TAKE IT, NOMAR

Nomar Garciaparra welcomes you to his locker in the middle of a Tuesday afternoon, same nice guy, different nice guy.

His smile is like his swing.

Huge but vacant.

His voice is like his power.

Once resounding, now soft.

In the middle of the strangest of Dodgers seasons, Nomar Garciaparra is the strangest of Dodgers.

He’s there, but he’s not.

“I don’t look at my stats, I never look at my stats,” he says. “As long as we’re winning, that’s all I care about, nothing else.”

He looks you in the eye, but the stare is tired, and the words sound rehearsed, and you wonder if Garciaparra is having the same trouble as everyone else in the organization.

Maybe he too has no idea why.

Why does a guy fall from 20 home runs last season to two home runs halfway through this season?

Why does a guy plunge from 53 extra-base hits last season to 15 halfway through this season?

Maybe he too has no idea how.

How does a guy with a career slugging percentage of .540 fall so suddenly to .333?

How does a guy with a career .320 batting average against left-handers drop to .213?

“This team is where we need to be right now, and that’s all I’m concerned about,” he says.

The Dodgers are in first place, indeed, but they are also in other places.

They are in a quandary if they go into September with a corner infielder who doesn’t hit the ball any harder than the slap-hitting center fielder. Yeah, Garciaparra has become Juan Pierre without the speed.

They are also in trouble if they go into the most pressure-filled part of the season without the calm presence of a guy who hit two of their biggest home runs last summer.

Finally, they are in an uncomfortable situation next season, the second of Garciaparra’s two-year contract, if he is still struggling and Andy LaRoche is ready.

Garciaparra can be happy the Dodgers are in first place.

Dodger fans, however, are perhaps worried about the other places.

“Hey, I had a year when I hit 35 homers and we didn’t win anything, so how much fun is that?” he said.

Surely this can’t be much fun either.

In a span of three months, the 33-year-old has lost his position, his swing and his aura.

“He is one tough guy, going through all this without saying anything,” third-base coach Rich Donnelly said. “We can all just imagine his frustration. He gets pitches to hit, he’s not hitting them, you can see the look on his face like he wants to go beserk.”

But he doesn’t.

He doesn’t wince when he is moved to third base because the Dodgers needed a stronger hitter at first base in James Loney.

“When I signed my contract, I told them I’d do whatever they needed, and I’m not going to change now,” he says.

He doesn’t gripe when he is benched for Wilson Betemit, an occurrence that could become more common as the Dodgers seek more power.

“Whatever is best for the team, I’ll do, that’s always been how I feel,” he says.

Maybe he needs to get mad. Maybe he needs to break a bat or turn over a laundry cart or do something.

When he’s playing well, Garciaparra is the lovably quiet enigma. When he’s struggling, he’s just an enigma.

The Dodgers can’t read his emotions, translate his stares, figure out how to fix him.

Said Manager Grady Little: “He keeps working.”

Said hitting coach Bill Mueller: “He’s working and improving every day.”

Translated: No clue, and no clue.

Garciaparra’s season was on full display against journeyman J.D. Durbin on Tuesday night in the Dodgers’ loss to the Philadelphia Phillies.

In his first plate appearance, he couldn’t get around on a 93-mph fastball, fouling it off.

In his second plate appearance, he lined an 87-mph fastball up the middle for a single.

That single occurred with Jeff Kent standing on second base, increasing his one shining stat, his .400 average with runners in scoring position. But he has just four extra-base hits in that situation.

And, oh yeah, even though he made a couple of nifty plays in the field, the loss meant the Dodgers fell to 7-7 when Garciaparra starts at third base.

“If you’ve been around long enough, you know what veterans are thinking,” said Donnelly. “A guy misses a 3-and-1 fastball, he’s thinking, ‘Man, I used to hit that’ and he gets really frustrated.”

The Dodgers compute his age, watch his work habits and remain confident he can find himself before September finds him.

“This is not somebody who is late in his baseball life, this is somebody who has a proven record,” said Ned Colletti, Dodgers general manager.

But, in batting .229 after the All-Star break last year, including .222 in the playoffs, Garciaparra had already proved that he was on the decline.

Last October, because of this, I wrote that Colletti should not re-sign Garciaparra. I’m guessing he might have agreed until J.D. Drew bolted town and his top free-agent possibilities failed to show up.

“We had a player out there with 20 homers and 93 RBIs, we needed that kind of production,” said Colletti.

What they need to do now is face the truth that this player no longer exists.

Maybe his physical changes have finally robbed him of his power.

Maybe his years of fighting injuries have finally stolen some of his reflexes.

Maybe we’ll never know.

The only thing certain is, whoever this Garciaparra person is, he’s gone, and the bewildered Dodgers miss him already.

--

Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Plaschke, go to latimes.com/plaschke.