Little’s patience wears thin

Grady Little gave the Dodgers a week to change their ways and it hasn’t worked. So now, he says, it may be time for him to make some changes of his own.

“It is starting to be a real concern,” the Dodgers manager said of his team’s impotent offense after Atlanta’s John Smoltz and a pair of relievers combined to shut out the Dodgers, 4-0, Friday in the opener of a seven-game trip.

“We’re going to have to make some changes around here,” he continued. “Either in the batting order or the personnel or something.

“It’s got to start happening because it’s getting old watching this.”

Watching things such as his team scoring only six runs in its last 49 innings. Or going two for 33 with the bases loaded. Or stranding nearly eight runners a game.

The Dodgers failed in all those categories Friday while getting shut out for the first time this season. They loaded the bases with none out in the fourth, yet failed to score, and left 11 men on base after going one for 11 with runners in scoring position.

“We’ve got to start being a little more productive ... that’s the bottom line,” Little said. “We’ve got to get a change of our outlook on the whole situation when we get those chances to execute.”

No Dodger needs that more than third baseman Wilson Betemit, who had a rude homecoming Friday. Playing his first game in Atlanta since being traded from the Braves to the Dodgers last July, Betemit struck out in each of his three at-bats, dropping his average to .125 and leaving him with more strikeouts (18) than hits, runs and RBIs combined (17).

His second at-bat came in the fourth, after the Dodgers had loaded the bases on consecutive singles by Nomar Garciaparra, Luis Gonzalez and Russell Martin. But Betemit struck out swinging on a full-count pitch and Ramon Martinez followed by lining out to left to end the inning.

“I think he’s pretty much hit rock bottom at this point,” Little said of Betemit, who may have lost his spot in the lineup. “And when you get there, there’s no place to go but up.”

The Braves, meanwhile, got all the offense they would need in the first inning when Brett Tomko and Brian McCann battled through an eight-pitch at-bat that ended with McCann slicing a two-out, two-run double just inside the left-field line.

They doubled that lead in the fifth when Tomko (0-3) walked three batters, then gave up another two-run, two-out double to Jeff Francoeur on a sinking line drive that tipped off the top of Juan Pierre’s glove as he dived.

Which pretty much summed up the Dodgers’ night. And week.

“We get in situations where we can drive in runs and we’re not coming through,” said Martin, the only player in Friday’s lineup batting over .300. “But that will change.”

Just maybe not any time soon: Tonight the Dodgers face right-hander Tim Hudson, who has given up the second-fewest runs of any starter in baseball.

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kevin.baxter@latimes.com