Quality is job one with the pitchers

One reason the Dodgers started Wednesday atop the National League West despite a punch-less offense has been the strength of their starting pitching. But that’s a long-standing tradition with the Dodgers, who lead the majors in quality starts since 2002.

A quality start -- one in which a pitcher goes at least six innings and gives up three earned runs or less -- is intended to measure how often pitchers keep their teams in the game. And the Dodgers are the only team to have done that in more than 55% of their starts over the last five-plus seasons.

“They’ve had quality arms here since that time,” said pitching coach Rick Honeycutt, whose starters began Wednesday third in the National League with a 3.45 earned-run average. “It’s no different than this staff we have this year. Those are five quality starters that we’re running out there every fifth day. It gives our team a chance to win every day.”

Brad Penny has made quality starts in all seven of his appearances and the Dodgers have won six of those. As a team, the Dodgers were tied for fifth place in the major leagues with 18 in 33 games before Brett Tomko’s start Wednesday, and they had won 14 of those starts. That’s better than the trend throughout baseball, where teams won slightly more than two-thirds of the games in which they received a quality start, according to statistics compiled by the Kansas City Star from Baseball-Reference.com.

“Any team you build, you have to build it on starting pitching,” Honeycutt said. “If you have good pitching you’re giving yourself a chance to win every night and be in every ballgame. That’s what you want.”

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With the Dodgers midway through a 13-day stretch without a day off, Manager Grady Little said the team could make a roster move in the next week to bolster the bullpen.

“I think it’s inevitable,” he said.

Among the candidates to be called up are left-hander Hong-Chih Kuo and right-hander Yhency Brazoban, both of whom came off the disabled list in the last week.

The Dodgers have been carrying 11 pitchers since opening day.

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Nomar Garciaparra was held out of the lineup after going two for 21 through the first five games of the trip, dropping his average to .268.

“I don’t think he’s been pushing himself too hard. He just needs a break to get out of this little funk he’s in,” said Little, who expected Garciaparra to start today. “We’ll see how things go. He just needs a day or so to regroup.”

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Former Dodgers catcher and current minor league coach Steve Yeager is recovering at home after an auto accident over the weekend.

Yeager was returning to his Westlake home after a Friday night game in San Bernardino when the car in front of his swerved, hit the center divider and went airborne, landing on Yeager’s.

“He’s in a lot of discomfort right now,” said Dodgers broadcaster Rick Monday, a friend and former teammate.

Although Yeager’s injuries were not considered life-threatening, he needed more than 250 stitches to close wounds on his arm, Monday said.

It’s uncertain when Yeager will be able to return to his job as hitting coach with the Dodgers’ Class-A club, the Inland Empire 66ers.

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Andy LaRoche’s fourth-inning single gave him hits in his first four big league games.

kevin.baxter@latimes.com