No Win, No Sweep, No Sweat

Race over? Felipe Alou, manager of the San Francisco Giants, all but conceded the National League West over the weekend, juggling his rotation so ace Jason Schmidt could face the San Diego Padres twice in the final 15 days of the season.

That removes Schmidt from one of his two scheduled starts against the Dodgers. In the wild-card race, the Giants lead the Padres by 2 1/2 games. In the division race, with 20 games left, the Dodgers lead the Giants by five.

“Of course it’s not over, if that’s what you’re trying to get me to say,” Dodger outfielder Milton Bradley said. “But we’re where we want to be. We’re in a position to put them out of reach. We’d have to do a complete -- what do you call it? -- hit rock bottom and pass out on the field to lose right now.”

The Dodgers were none too upset Sunday, after a spirited if sloppy 7-6 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in front of 54,000 at Dodger Stadium. They got a horrendous start from Hideo Nomo, made three errors, watched Larry Walker hit two home runs and still came within two runs of sweeping the team with the best record in the major leagues.

“You can’t be disappointed about winning a series against that ballclub,” Manager Jim Tracy said.

In the clubhouse, the players generally scoffed at all the talk-show discussion about needing to make a statement against the Cardinals, who had swept the Dodgers in St. Louis the previous weekend. In their World Series championship season of 1988, the Dodgers went 1-10 against the New York Mets in the regular season, then beat them in the playoffs.

“We’re not trying to test ourselves against another team,” catcher David Ross said. “We’re trying to get to the playoffs and set ourselves up to win.”

In the playoffs, assuming they get there, the Dodgers do not figure to start Nomo. After sitting out two months because of an injured shoulder and making two decent starts against the last-place Arizona Diamondbacks, Nomo got 11 outs against the Cardinals.

In 3 2/3 innings, he gave up six runs and nine hits, including both of Walker’s home runs. The Dodgers figure to try to run out the clock with Nomo, given Tracy’s response to the question of whether he would try another starter in his place: “What do you feel are the different alternatives?”

The Dodgers removed Kazuhisa Ishii from the rotation over the weekend, replacing him with Wilson Alvarez. Brad Penny’s next start this season -- if there is one -- is two weeks away. Edwin Jackson, in his first outing after his rehabilitation assignment, took the loss Sunday, pitching two relief innings, giving up one run and walking two.

The Dodgers got Nomo off the hook, in part with a two-run home run from Jayson Werth and a two-run single from Steve Finley. In the sixth inning, with the score tied, 6-6, Jackson walked Tony Womack on four pitches. Womack took third on a single by Walker, then scored the winning run when Albert Pujols hit into a double play.

The Dodgers topped the 3-million mark in tickets sold Sunday, for the ninth straight season and 19th overall, a major league record. They will play the final 20 games of the season within their division, including six against the Giants and seven against the Padres.

“You want to play San Francisco and San Diego in these stretches,” Bradley said. “This is what I watched as a kid. I’m excited to be a part of it.”