LOS ANGELES -- Jim Tracy, who sent Kazuhisa Ishii to the bullpen a day earlier, was asked if Hideo Nomo would be joining him.
"What do you feel the different alternatives are?" the Dodger manager asked after Nomo was battered and the Dodgers' five-game win streak ended in a 7-6 loss to the Cardinals on Sunday.
Nomo was charged with six runs on nine hits in 3 2/3 innings of his third start since returning from two months on the sidelines with a weak shoulder.
"I didn't think I pitched that bad today," said Nomo. "The pitches they hit weren't located where I wanted them to be. I still don't think I pitched too bad."
His fastball was no better than 87 mph, usually slower, and his ERA since returning is 6.32, even though he was eased back with two starts against the last-place Arizona Diamondbacks.
That said, with Wilson Alvarez already taking Ishii's spot and Brad Penny not ready, there aren't many replacement parts from which Tracy can choose. One is Edwin Jackson, but in what amounted to a tryout, he was the losing pitcher on Sunday in his first relief appearance since ending a rehab assignment for a strained forearm.
Plagued by command problems all year, one of his two walks scored the winning run immediately after the Dodgers erased a four-run deficit. Jackson walked Tony Womack leading off the sixth, and then Larry Walker's fourth hit of the game put runners on the corners. Womack scored on Albert Pujols' double-play grounder to break the tie.
"With their lineup, you have to make them earn their way to first base," said Tracy. "A four-pitch walk puts you in a vulnerable position. Edwin wasn't bad today, but what we saw very much is what our minor league people told us. He pitched two innings and walked two. What does that look like if he starts a ballgame?"
Jackson said he had no physical problems, but second-guessed his mental approach.
"I was not as aggressive as I needed to be," said Jackson, who turned 21 on Thursday. "I found that I wasn't aggressive until I got in trouble."
Walker homered twice, doubled, drove in three and scored three. But the Dodgers got a two-run homer from Jayson Werth and another clutch hit from Steve Finley, who keyed the four-run fifth with a two-run single that scored a third run when center fielder Jim Edmonds misplayed the ball.
The Dodgers missed a chance to return the favor for the sweep they suffered in St. Louis last weekend, and went 2-4 against a Cardinals team they could face in October. The Dodgers' lead in the National League West is five games, as it was when the series started and where it's been hovering for pretty much the last five weeks.
Steve Finley / CF
Born: 03/12/65
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 195 lbs
Bats: L / Throws: L
Werth woke up the crowd in the bottom of the third inning when he crushed a 2-1 fastball from Chris Carpenter that landed in the blue section, three-quarters of the way up the left-field pavilion, 432 feet away. Following Cesar Izturis' one-out walk, Werth's 13th home run got the Dodgers even after Nomo had put them in a 2-0 hole.
Walker homered with one out in the first and he doubled with two out in the third, scoring when Pujols blistered a line drive off the glove of a leaping Adrian Beltre at third base.
Pujols advanced to second when Izturis retrieved the ball and threw home, then Nomo intentionally walked Edmonds. Nomo tried to pick off Pujols at second and the throw went into center field, but with runners on second and third, Nomo got Edgar Renteria on a comebacker.
The jolt Werth gave his club was short-lived, as Nomo went from shaky in the third to the showers in the fourth.
He was allowed to face seven more batters, five of them getting hits, Walker's being his second homer and third extra-base hit of the game. Nomo was finally lifted after Pujols' single.
But as they have throughout the series, the Dodgers battled back, and as they have throughout the series, the Cardinals helped them.
Renteria made a fine play at shortstop to glove Tom Wilson's grounder leading off the fifth, but Pujols couldn't corral the throw in the dirt. Singles by Izturis and Werth loaded the bases for Finley, who again delivered with a single to center.
Two runs scored on the hit, and when Edmonds misplayed the ball for an error, a third scored. Finley tagged and went to third on Beltre's lineout to right, and scored the tying run on Shawn Green's soft grounder when second baseman Womack backhanded the ball and couldn't cleanly pull it from his glove, settling to get Green at first.
"We don't give up," said Finley. "We know we have a chance no matter what the inning and who's pitching."
Ken Gurnick is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
News
Steve Finley / CF
print this page