Bad/Good News for Dodger Rotation

There is boldness aplenty at Dodger Stadium these days. One week after the general manager shook up the roster by making four trades in two days, the manager shook up the rotation Saturday by abruptly dumping Kazuhisa Ishii into the bullpen.

In unusually blunt language, Manager Jim Tracy said the pressure of the pennant race left the Dodgers no room to tolerate Ishii’s consistent inconsistency.

“I don’t think it’s fair for the club to come to the ballpark at this late juncture of the season and wonder which guy is going to show up,” Tracy said before the Dodgers’ 6-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.

Ishii hasn’t pitched in relief since the Dodgers spent $23 million to sign him in 2002, following his stellar career as a starter for Japan’s Yakult Swallows. For now, Wilson Alvarez will replace Ishii in the rotation, with Edwin Jackson and Hideo Nomo providing alternatives in coming weeks as they return from the disabled list.

There was praise aplenty for Saturday’s starter, Odalis Perez. He pitched seven shutout innings, earning his first victory since June 16 in his first pairing with newly acquired catcher Brent Mayne.

“He called perfect pitches and I threw perfect pitches,” Perez said.

Shawn Green homered, Jayson Werth scored three runs and the Dodgers drew 11 walks, including two by Perez and four by Milton Bradley. After the Phillies halved a 6-0 lead by scoring once off Yhency Brazoban in the eighth and twice off Darren Dreifort in the ninth, Tracy used closer Eric Gagne for the fifth time in six games. Gagne got a one-out save, satisfying a sellout crowd of 54,404.

The Dodgers won for the seventh time in nine games and extended their National League West lead to 6 1/2 games. It hasn’t been larger since the final day of the 1988 season.

The Dodgers won the World Series that year, and they haven’t won a playoff game since then. They did reach the playoffs in 1995 and 1996, but were swept out each time.

In defending his flurry of trades that removed five players from the roster of a first-place team, first-year General Manager Paul DePodesta said, “The goal all along isn’t to get there and get swept.”

For Tracy, whose first three Dodger teams have faded from contention and whose contract expires after the season, the more immediate goal is getting there. Tracy yanked Ishii from the rotation one night after he gave up five runs, including four home runs, in two innings. He faced 12 hitters and retired six.

Ishii (11-5) leads the team in victories, although his 4.76 earned-run average is the highest among Dodger starters. He threw a one-hit shutout against the Arizona Diamondbacks on July 7 but has failed to pitch beyond four innings in three of his past four starts.

“You have to feel fairly comfortable from a consistency standpoint in knowing what you’re going to get from the guys we’re throwing out there,” Tracy said. “It’s not April. It’s not May. It’s the seventh of August.”

In order to acquire Ishii, the Dodgers paid the Swallows $11.26 million for negotiating rights, then signed him to a four-year, $12.2-million contract. The Dodgers must pay him $3.2 million next season.

“You guys tend to make the consistency thing the problem,” Ishii told reporters through a translator, saying he would work on adjustments he declined to discuss in the hope of rejoining the rotation.

“Of course I’m disappointed,” he said. “I’ve got to do what the team wants right now.”