L.A. bats go silent again

CINCINNATI -- Russell Martin had no answers.

Asked why the Dodgers were suddenly unable to hit again in their 8-1 loss to the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday night at Great American Ball Park, Martin shrugged.

“I have no idea,” he said.

Why is it that everyone in the lineup seems to hit or not hit at the same time?

“I don’t know,” he said.

Do some pitchers know how to pitch to this team?

“I don’t know,” he said.

About the only explanation Martin could give for how a team that scored nine runs and had 15 hits the previous night could be held to a single run for the fourth time in five games had to do with the “hitting gnome” -- a computer printout of a blue-clad garden gnome sold on the Dodgers’ official website.

The picture wasn’t taped to one of the dugout benches until after the first inning.

With the image of the gnome in the dugout on Monday night, Martin reached base five times and was three for three with a double. Martin struck out in the first inning on Tuesday night, but once the picture of the gnome was produced, Martin proceeded to draw three walks.

“Gnome, man,” Martin said shaking his head. “I’ve got to put him in my back pocket.”

The Dodgers, who had five hits, lost for the 10th time in 13 games, dropping them to 8-12 on the season, their worst start in 12 seasons. (The 1996 team finished second in the NL West and won the wild card.)

The Dodgers were one for eight with runners in scoring position -- the one hit came in the third, when Rafael Furcal’s ground-rule double to center drove in Hong-Chih Kuo -- and looked like the team that was one for 22 in those situations when they were swept in three games in Atlanta over the weekend.

Dodgers Manager Joe Torre didn’t hesitate to credit Edinson Volquez, the 24-year old Reds starter who gave up a run and three hits in seven innings. Volquez, who was part of a two-pitcher package acquired from the Texas Rangers in exchange for outfielder Josh Hamilton last winter, mixed a fastball that touched 98 mph with a wicked changeup that broke late.

“We were basically in between,” Torre said.

Rafael Furcal said Volquez was similar to Atlanta’s Jair Jurrjens, who shut down the Dodgers on Sunday.

“He was pretty unbelievable,” Furcal said of Volquez.

Tuesday’s game was a breakout of sorts for the Reds, similar to the way Monday’s was for the Dodgers.

The Reds, who had lost eight of their previous 10 games, had a player collect four hits in a game for the first time this season in Jerry Hairston Jr., who was four for five with a double and three runs batted in. Corey Patterson, who pinch hit in the eight inning, tripled to right off Jonathan Broxton to break a career-long 0-for-22 slump, and Edwin Encarnacion extended his hitting streak to 12 games.

Victimized by the four-run fourth inning by the Reds that opened up a 5-1 margin was Kuo, who, in Torre’s eyes, did a better job of locating his pitches than he had in his previous start. Adam Dunn crushed a home run to left to start the deluge, which forced Kuo out of the game that inning.

Torre said that he anticipated that Kuo, who gave up five runs and eight hits in 3 2/3 innings, would remain the Dodgers’ fifth starter.

The man Kuo replaced in the rotation, Esteban Loaiza, also had a tough night, giving up two runs in three innings.

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dylan.hernandez@latimes.com