Dodger Batters Bobble It

A sellout crowd of 53,662 filled Dodger Stadium on Thursday night to collect Shawn Green bobblehead dolls and help the struggling Dodgers out of their second-half stupor.

But pregame cheers turned to boos and the fans were left shaking their heads as the lowly San Diego Padres beat the Dodgers for the second night in a row and the third consecutive time this season, 4-1.

Brett Tomko gave up one run and five hits in eight innings and Trevor Hoffman earned his 22nd save as the Padres extended the Dodgers’ losing streak to four games.

The Dodgers, who surged to the top of the NL West standings in the first half, are now 1-7 since the All-Star break. They have lost eight of nine games and 10 of 13.

“We definitely are probably pressing too much,” Dodger second baseman Mark Grudzielanek said.

The Dodgers have scored only 17 runs since the All-Star break and have lost three series in a row.

Manager Jim Tracy did the math for himself after the game and said he is well aware of the anemic run production.

“That’s a pretty good idea where our major shortcoming has been since we came back from the break,” Tracy said.

The only good news for the Dodgers was losses by Arizona and San Francisco earlier in the day. The Giants come to town tonight for the start of a three-game series.

“You try to find something positive out of every situation, but when you’ve lost like we’ve lost, it gets old and frustrating no matter what,” center fielder Dave Roberts said.

Tracy juggled the lineup a bit, moving hot-hitting Paul Lo Duca to the No. 3 spot and batting Shawn Green in the cleanup position for the first time since May 8.

Tomko and Hoffman negated the shuffle.

Lo Duca, who had three of the Dodgers’ four hits in Wednesday’s loss and 11 multihit games since June 25, was hitless in four at-bats. Green was 0 for 3 with a walk.

Mark Kotsay and Phil Nevin, former All-Americans at Cal State Fullerton, hit solo home runs in the third and fourth innings respectively for the Padres, who were 0-7-2 in their last nine series.

That was more than enough for Tomko (5-6), who gave up five hits a night after Brian Lawrence pitched a five-hit shutout.

“I had a good sinker,” Tomko said. “I was just trying to locate it and get ground balls. And I think, early on, their offense was swinging at pitches early in the count.”

It was the second outstanding performance by Tomko against the Dodgers this season. Tomko pitched seven scoreless innings and struck out a career-high 13 in a 5-0 victory on April 21.

Andy Ashby (7-8) was the loser in that game and he lost again Thursday, giving up four runs and 10 hits in six-plus innings.

Along with Kotsay’s seventh homer and Nevin’s seventh homer, Ashby gave up a run-scoring single to Tomko in the seventh before he was replaced by Jesse Orosco.

Orosco surrendered an RBI single to Ryan Klesko to make the score 4-0.

The Dodgers scored their only run in the eighth inning when Grudzielanek hit a one-out single, moved to third on Alex Cora’s pinch-hit single and scored on Roberts’ ground ball to second baseman Ramon Vasquez.

Tomko then got pinch-hitter Dave Hansen on a called third strike to end the threat.

Hoffman pitched a scoreless ninth as the Padres won a series for the first time since mid-June when they took two of three games from the Seattle Mariners. The Padres have won three games in a row, a feat they had not achieved since a winning four in a row May 12-15.

Tracy and his players say they are ready for their series against the Giants despite their troubles.

“It’s not do or die, but it’s a big series,” Tracy said.

Roberts said the key for the Dodgers is obvious.

“We just have to find a way to go out there and score some runs,” he said.