Dodgers Fall to Marlins Again

Nothing is to be read into the fact that Dodger towels were given away Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium. No, management is far from ready to toss in the towel.

The players, however, might be another matter.

Facing the Florida Marlins, the team with the worst record in baseball, the Dodgers fell on their collective faces for the second consecutive game, losing, 3-2, before a crowd of 36,452 to fall to .500 (60-60) for the first time since July 19.

Florida first baseman Derrek Lee smashed a 3-2 pitch from reliever Antonio Osuna over the wall in right-center field leading off the eighth inning to win it for the Marlins.

Lee’s blast made Osuna a losing pitcher for the first time this season after he had won seven consecutive decisions.

Florida’s Rob Stanifer made his first entry of the season on the other side of the won-lost column, improving to 1-3.

The Dodgers tried to rally in their half of the eighth using their favorite weapon in this series, the walk. They used six Marlin walks in the ninth inning of the series opener Tuesday to spearhead a five-run rally that left them two runs short.

With two walks in the eighth Wednesday, the Dodgers had Roger Cedeno and Adrian Beltre coming up. But Cedeno took a called third strike from Stanifer and Beltre grounded to third.

Matt Mantei shut the Dodgers down in the ninth to pick up his seventh save and initiate another round of a sound becoming all too familiar around Dodger Stadium these days, the sound of booing.

Even a players-only meeting before the game didn’t help the Dodgers.

“It’s a tough situation,” said shortstop Mark Grudzielanek. “We all know what this team can do. We’ve got to get out of this. We can’t push the panic button, not in this game. Too many things can happen.”

And all the bad things seem to happen to the Dodgers.

Take their half of the sixth inning Wednesday night. Raul Mondesi singled, but that was erased when he was caught leaning the wrong way at first base.

With two out, Eric Karros hit a pop fly into short right field. Second baseman Luis Castillo raced over and managed to get the ball to bounce into his glove only to have it bounce out.

Well and good for the Dodgers.

But then Karros got greedy and took off for second, figuring that by the time it took Castillo to catch up to the ball, he could put himself in scoring position. But it took Castillo no time at all to catch up to the ball and he promptly gunned Karros down at second.

While it was another frustrating night for the Dodgers, there was plenty to cheer about for Marlin outfielder Mark Kotsay, who played his college ball at Cal State Fullerton and had a huge group on hand to root him on.

And they barely had time to get in their seats before Kotsay gave them something to cheer about.

With two Dodgers aboard in the first inning, Karros hit a sinking liner to right. Kotsay dove for the ball, knowing full well that a failure to come up with it would mean two runs. But come up with it he did, making a diving catch, rolling over and then holding the ball up for the umpires, family and friends to see.

The game remained a pitcher’s duel between the Dodgers’ Carlos Perez and the Marlins’ Kirt Ojala until the fifth inning. Then with two out and two on, Dodger second baseman Eric Young collected his first RBI of the night, smashing an Ojala pitch to the wall in right-center, beyond the reach of Kotsay. It went for a double, driving in Charles Johnson, who had walked.

But in the sixth, the Dodgers gave the run back. And the two key figures in the Bobby Bonilla-Beltre question were involved.

The question is whether Bonilla, who is better at third base, should be playing in left field where he continues to struggle.

Beltre was the first to struggle Wednesday. He backed up on a bouncer by Lee in the sixth inning and then mishandled it, the ball going into left field and Beltre being charged with his 11th error, the total accumulated in 42 games.

With two men aboard and two out, Dave Berg singled to left. With an outstanding throw, Bonilla had a shot at getting Lee at the plate, but, Bonilla never tried, hitting the cutoff man instead as the run came across.

“We have to change,” Manager Glenn Hoffman said. “We can’t keep going along this way.”