Rafael Furcal fumbles, stumbles in his return as Dodgers lose to Cubs, 3-0
Reporting from Chicago -- Jamey Carroll won’t be playing shortstop for the Dodgers on Wednesday. But the thought came up repeatedly on Tuesday, watching Rafael Furcal muddle through his first game in a month.
The Dodgers probably would have lost anyway, what with Ryan Dempster and Carlos Marmol teaming on a three-hit shutout in the Chicago Cubs’ 3-0 victory at Wrigley Field. However, with Furcal appearing overmatched at bat and erratic in the field, perhaps the Dodgers should have had him play a game or two in the California League this week before they activated him.
“No excuses,” Furcal said. “It’s a bad day for me.”
Furcal went hitless in four at-bats, with two strikeouts, a pop fly and a fly ball. Granted, no one hit Dempster, and the last 16 Dodgers batters were retired in order.
Yet Furcal also botched the first three ground balls hit to him, with his two errors leading to all three Chicago runs.
“If I make those three plays, the game is different,” Furcal said.
For one, Clayton Kershaw would not have given up a run. Kershaw still lowered his earned-run average to 2.90 — and 0.64 in his last four starts — by scattering four hits over six innings.
“What can you say? I just got outpitched,” Kershaw said.
He gave up one run, not earned, because Ryan Theriot scored in the sixth inning after reaching base when Furcal backhanded his ground ball, then dropped it.
“Furky has made so many great plays behind me,” Kershaw said. “I have all the confidence in the world in him. Any time your teammate makes an error, you’ve got to pick him up, just like he would do for you. I didn’t do it.”
In the seventh, Dempster’s slow ground ball up the middle glanced off Furcal’s glove. Dempster was credited with a single, but Furcal said he should have made the play.
Furcal made his second error in the eighth inning, when he fielded Starlin Castro’s ground ball cleanly but threw high to first base. Derrek Lee, who had singled home Theriot in the sixth inning, then hit a two-run home run.
Furcal had not played since April 27 because of a strained left hamstring. He tested the hamstring in two California League games May 11-12, and he learned he was not ready to return.
The Dodgers had him play in one extended spring training game last weekend, and then he and the team agreed he was ready. Manager Joe Torre acknowledged that Furcal’s poor performance Tuesday left the impression that the shortstop could have used a renewed minor league rehabilitation assignment.
“It’s easy to say that now,” Torre said. “We were hoping he would go out and get tested. He is going to have to get his sea legs under him.”
Furcal said he had no concerns about his hamstring and no interest in a longer rehabilitation assignment.
“I did what I had to do,” he said. “I had three games in the minor leagues. Everything was fine.
“I don’t have any excuse, like my leg was bothering me. Nothing is bothering me.”
Torre said that Furcal showed “probably rust,” not only afield but in swinging at high pitches.
“He’s going to have to find himself,” Torre said.
The Dodgers are 17-9 when Carroll starts at shortstop, 8-11 when Furcal does. Torre said Furcal would start again Wednesday.
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