Dodgers burn out in clutch

Nomar Garciaparra stood in the middle of a silent clubhouse Thursday afternoon and tried to do what few Dodgers hitters have been able to accomplish in the last two weeks: pick up a teammate.

Twice in the previous 2 1/2 hours, Garciaparra had come to the plate with a runner in scoring position and failed to drive him home. As a result the Dodgers blew both a game and another excellent pitching performance by Derek Lowe, losing, 3-0, to the Florida Marlins.

Josh Willingham’s ninth-inning home run off Lowe broke up a scoreless tie and sent the Dodgers home with their first losing trip of the season. And with two Marlins pitchers limiting them to three hits, the Dodgers’ worst offensive slump of the young season deepened as well.

But at least it was quick -- the 2-hour 7-minute game was the second-shortest of the year for the Dodgers.

Lowe raced through the first three innings in 28 pitches and gave up four hits through eight innings.

“You couldn’t ask for anything more from Derek Lowe. He pitched an unbelievable game,” Garciaparra said. “I had my opportunity to knock the guy in and I didn’t. That loss isn’t on his shoulders, it’s a loss on ours. Particularly on me.”

There were plenty of Dodgers who should share the blame -- both for Thursday’s loss and a 3-4 trip in which they were shut out twice. Actually, just about anyone carrying a bat will do because the Dodgers are hitting .238 and averaging three runs a game in their last 10 starts.

“We’ve got some things we need to get ironed out,” Manager Grady Little said. “We’ve got to do something different. And it may start as early as [today].

“I’m not really sure exactly what it’s going to be yet, but we need to change the scenery a little bit.”

Little got a bit of a spark from elevating Juan Pierre to the leadoff spot. A .301 hitter over the last three-plus seasons in that spot -- as opposed to .268 in the No. 2 hole, where he has hit most of this season -- Pierre responded with two hits and two stolen bases. But Garciaparra was the only other player to get a hit off Marlins starter Sergio Mitre, who hasn’t won a game in 13 months yet looked like Roger Clemens against the Dodgers.

Pierre, who is hitting .275, was moved up because regular leadoff hitter Rafael Furcal is in a funk, hitting .226, 74 points below last season’s average. And Garciaparra, a former batting champion, hit .120 on the trip with one run batted in.

He had two chances to drive in Pierre on Thursday, but he lined out to right with one out and Pierre on second in the first and popped up a 2-and-0 pitch with Pierre on third and one out in the sixth.

“We’ve just got to capitalize on opportunities to pick up a guy on our team,” Garciaparra said of the Dodgers, who went 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position. “Our pitchers have been doing an unbelievable job. We have to score runs to pick them up.”

That’s proving difficult with a lineup that includes only one regular -- catcher Russell Martin -- batting better than .300. And only two teams in the majors have hit fewer home runs than the Dodgers’ 18.

Those numbers had a frustrated Little contemplating more shake-ups in the batting order on the long flight home.

“Coming out of spring training we were very confident with the lineup that we had,” he said. “To this day I don’t think we’ve seen it in full operation.

“We will make changes if we need to. If something’s not working we will change it. But we do feel like we’ve got the material here to get it done.”

kevin.baxter@latimes.com