You Can Feel It Just Slip, Sliding Away

All of a sudden, with the games becoming more important, the Dodgers are lapsing on the little things.

The same details that brought them to first place on July 22 have deserted them and dropped them to a tie for second.

There’s little margin for error in this shrink-wrapped National League West race, and there sure wasn’t a lot of wriggle room Friday night against Chicago Cub ace Kerry Wood.

But Eric Karros got picked off second base to thwart the only opportunity the Dodgers had for a rally. And Jim Tracy, who has done so much right, lost on his decision to stay with an otherwise effective Chan Ho Park in the eighth inning of a 2-1 Dodger defeat.

“When you face a guy like Kerry Wood throwing the way he did tonight, you’ve got to find a way to win the game,” said Shawn Green, who had two of the Dodgers’ three hits, including a solo home run. “We let it slip away. It was a game we needed to win.”

So a series that started filled with optimism and even good-natured trash talk between Gary Sheffield and former Dodger Eric Young has become urgent.

The Dodgers have lost five in a row, have lost their hold on first place. They’re a half-game behind the Arizona Diamondbacks, tied for second with the San Francisco Giants.

The mistakes are adding up. A throwing error by Paul Lo Duca in the ninth inning Sunday against Colorado. A dropped ball at home plate that let the go-ahead run score in extra innings Tuesday against Cincinnati.

Before the game, Tracy and the Dodgers had a reason to feel good despite this week’s slump because they were in first place. After all the injuries, all the drama of the early season, they were right where any team would like to be: in the pole position for the pennant race.

The front office made its moves last week, acquiring starter James Baldwin and two relievers. Tracy helped create the right environment. Now it’s time for the players to start digging for that little extra.

Karros has been battling injuries and is starting to show signs of emerging from his slump. He had the misfortune of following Green to the plate after Green’s homer in the seventh inning and he had to duck out of the way of a high inside fastball from Wood that looked very purposeful. Three pitches later, he managed to stroke a double to right field.

The Dodgers had a man on second with only one out. A second run would be huge, perhaps even decisive, the way Park was pitching.

It’s not like Karros was going to steal third. But he strayed too far from the base, then he was caught at second when Wood wheeled and fired to Young, who swiped at Karros’ leg before Karros could get back.

For most of the game, Park looked every bit the big-money pitcher. You could almost imagine the dollar signs rocketing through agent Scott Boras’ eyes, like the gauge on a gas pump. It was an important game, a difficult pitching matchup, and he was up to the challenge.

He gave up only two hits through the first seven innings.

His pitch count was at 98 entering the eighth inning, putting him near the danger zone. He started having trouble finding the strike zone and nipped Sammy Sosa with an inside pitch. Then Fred McGriff smoked a double to right field. Sosa held at third.

The Dodgers had already escaped trouble in a similar situation in the sixth inning, with Sosa at third and McGriff on second with one out. But Park got Ron Coomer to tap a grounder back to him. Park then threw to Adrian Beltre at third, Beltre threw to catcher Chad Kreuter, who ran Sosa back to the base. By that time McGriff was standing on the bag as well, and he was called out. Hundley grounded to second and the inning was over.

Park was out of tricks by the eighth. The Cubs tied the score on a sacrifice fly by Michael Tucker, then went ahead on Coomer’s single.

Park got the Dodgers that far, so Tracy was going to give him the chance to finish his business.

“The thing that I’d have gone home tonight feeling bad about,” Tracy said, “is if I would have taken him out--him having become the ace of our staff in the absence of Kevin [Brown]--and then they get the base hit out of the bullpen to beat him.”

He paused and shook his head.

“That’s just not something that would have sat very well with me. Not when the guy has pitched that well and that deep into the game. He was a pitch away from leaving the game at 1-1, and Coomer got a two-strike base hit.”

There it is, the little things. The Cubs are fighting, too. They made a huge trade, getting McGriff from Tampa Bay. It was a splashier move than anything the Dodgers did.

But Friday they were more resourceful, turning a pitch that caught more of Sosa’s jersey than his body and a short single to right field for the victory.