Kuroda way off-base in Dodgers’ loss

Since flirting with history earlier this month, Hiroki Kuroda has been anything but perfect.

The rookie right-hander from Japan has endured the worst four-game stretch of his major league career, the low point coming in the fourth inning of the Dodgers’ 7-6 loss Monday night to the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium.

With runners on first and third base and one out, Kuroda fielded a dribbler off the bat of Rich Aurilia several feet in front of the mound. As Aaron Rowand held at third, Kuroda, rather than get the sure out at first, inexplicably whirled and threw to second, where John Bowker was already standing after breaking on the pitch.

Then, just when it seemed Kuroda might escape the ensuing bases-loaded jam after striking out Omar Vizquel for the second out to bring up pitcher Kevin Correia and his .083 batting average, Correia lined a 1-and-2 pitch up the middle for a two-run single.

Things only deteriorated from there for Kuroda on a Japanese American Community Night that featured strong performances by singers and drummers but not starting pitchers.

The Dodgers nearly bailed out Kuroda from a seven-run deficit, matching the Giants’ five-run fourth inning with a five spot of their own in the fifth. Then, one day after losing his spot as the everyday center fielder, Andruw Jones delivered a pinch-hit, run-scoring single in the sixth to make it 7-6.

But the Giants escaped by holding the Dodgers scoreless over the final three innings, costing them a chance to tie Arizona for first place in the National League West.

Not that there weren’t plenty of fireworks during an eighth inning in which Dodgers third baseman Casey Blake and Manager Joe Torre were ejected after a run-in with first base umpire Greg Gibson.

After Gibson ruled that Blake failed to check his swing on the final pitch of a strikeout, Blake returned to the dugout. Television replays appeared to show Blake utter an expletive, and Gibson ejected him.

Blake said he “didn’t really say anything in the dugout, I just mocked him a little bit, his ring-up.”

Blake raced onto the field following his ejection, flinging his helmet to the field on the way toward a brief confrontation that ended with Torre’s ejection.

“I wanted to know why the umpire was looking at the dugout and not the field,” Torre said. “It was my contention that you’re looking for trouble when that happens.”

Blake said he had never had any previous problems with Gibson going back to their days in the minor leagues.

“I just said, ‘Why are you still looking in the dugout?’ ” Blake said of his conversation with the umpire. “He said I had my chance [to complain] when I was walking back to the dugout.”

After the inning ended, a fan sat on the roof of the Giants dugout with his legs dangling over players’ heads. Security guards quickly pulled the fan into the dugout and handcuffed him before removing him from the stadium.

For sheer peculiarity, nothing could top Kuroda’s fourth-inning throw to second base, which the pitcher said he made in the hope of starting a double play. He said he had no idea that Bowker was almost standing on the bag by the time he released the ball.

“A surprise more than anything else,” Torre said of the throw.

Kuroda (5-8) allowed a season-high seven runs in only 3 2/3 innings, increasing his earned-run average to 9.82 since he took a perfect game into the eighth inning against Atlanta on July 7 at Dodger Stadium and finished with a one-hit shutout.

“I haven’t been throwing my pitches lately and getting good outings,” Kuroda, who insisted that he was fine physically, said through an interpreter. “I’ve been a burden on the team.”

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ben.bolch@latimes.com