Matt Kemp goes one for four in Dodgers’ loss

Reporting from San Diego

Their lockers are in the opposite corners of the visiting clubhouse at Petco Park. Their seasons’ places in baseball history are similarly positioned to each other.

In one corner is Matt Kemp, who is conscious of his pursuit to become the National League’s first triple crown winner in 74 years and only the fifth major league player to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in the same season.

Kemp was one for four in the Dodgers’ 3-0 defeat to the San Diego Padres on Saturday, dropping his average to .325, six points behind NL leader Ryan Braun. He remains the league’s co-leader in home runs (37) and sole leader in runs batted in (119).

In the other corner is Eugenio Velez, who was only a day removed from a record-setting night. He didn’t play Saturday.

Velez, a utility infielder, said he was unaware of the history he made.

“What’s the record?” he asked.

Most consecutive at-bats without a hit, 45, equaling a record shared by Bill Bergen, Dave Campbell and Craig Counsell. Velez’s streak dates back to last season.

Also, most at-bats by a non-pitcher in a hitless season, 36. The old record of 35 was established by Hal Finney of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1936.

Velez nodded.

“If I have already been through so much, so many bad moments, so many good ones, why would I let this frustrate me?” Velez asked.

Velez, 29, spoke about coming to the United States from his native Dominican Republic for the first time eight years ago. He recalled being in awe of some of the other Toronto Blue Jays prospects who were in camp with him in Florida.

“I remember watching some players, thinking, ‘Wow, that guy is going to get to the major leagues before me,’” he said. “But most of them never got here.”

Of the Dominican players who were there with him, he said only two did: Robinson Diaz, a catcher, and Francisco Rosario, a pitcher.

Diaz hasn’t played in the majors in each of the last two seasons. Rosario now pitches in Mexico.

Velez said life wasn’t easy.

“When I first got here, I didn’t speak any English,” he said. “To do anything, I had to get someone to help me.”

He said he was homesick and worried.

“Will they like me?” he said he used to ask himself. “Will they not like me? If I don’t do well, will they send me back to my country?”

He reached the majors in 2007 with the San Francisco Giants, playing in 225 games for them over four seasons. He was let go last winter and picked up by the Dodgers, who signed him to a minor-league contract and called him up on July 4.

Velez, who grew up as one of six people living in a two-bedroom house, said he got as far as he did because of a positive mind-set.

Two-and-a-half hitless months haven’t changed that. Velez, who was hitting .339 for triple-A Albuquerque at the time of his promotion, said he views his skid as nothing more than another obstacle he will overcome.

“Not once did I worry about whether I would be sent back down to triple A,” he said. “You can’t play baseball with fear.”

But he acknowledged he can’t completely block out the negative thoughts.

He pointed to his last at-bat Friday night. Starting for the first time since Aug. 31, he hit a ball down the left-field line in the eighth inning that barely landed foul.

“I had to tell myself, ‘I can’t think about that,’” he said.

Still, he said he occasionally finds himself frustrated.

“The frustration just hits me suddenly,” he said. “I’ll be in the cage and I’ll say to myself, ‘I have to do this, I have to do that.’”

But Velez said coach Manny Mota is often there to calm him down.

“You don’t have to do anything,” he said Mota has told him. “With some luck, you’ll get out of it.”

He said he takes comfort in knowing his teammates are behind him.

“I feel everyone is cheering me on — the manager, the coaches, the players,” he said. “They always tell me, ‘This is your time. It’s coming now.’ That motivates me, that picks me up.”

Billingsley finishes at .500

Unraveling in the fifth inning of his final start, Chad Billingsley was charged with a defeat that dropped his record to 11-11. He finished the season with a 4.21 earned-run average and 152 strikeouts in 188 innings.

“It definitely wasn’t what I wanted,” he said.

dylan.hernandez@latimes.com