Little says umpire right on disputed call

PITTSBURGH —  My bad.

That was Dodgers Manager Grady Little’s apologetic reaction to the play that got him ejected in the fourth inning of Sunday’s come-from-behind win over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

With one out, a runner on third and the Pirates leading, 2-0, Nomar Garciaparra backhanded a chopper between first and second and threw home, where catcher Russell Martin appeared to have the plate blocked. But umpire Bill Welke ruled Xavier Nady’s foot hit the plate before Martin tagged him, eliciting an angry exchange with Martin and bringing Little sprinting onto the field.

“The way it looked to me in the dugout looked nothing like it looked to me on TV when I came up here,” Little said in his clubhouse office afterward. “Welke was dead right on the call. He tagged him too high, just like he told me out there at home plate. And his foot was on the plate.

“He was right and I was wrong.”

Although Little was wrong on the play, he was right to argue the call, said Martin, who was able to start both Dodgers rallies with base hits.

“Grady’s got my back,” said Martin, who could have been ejected for arguing had Little not arrived in time. “He didn’t want me to get thrown out there. So high-five to Grady. We needed a boost there, and Grady gave it to us.”

It was a familiar scene. On April 21, also with Brad Penny pitching against the Pirates, Little was ejected for arguing balls and strikes. The Dodgers rallied to win that game, 7-3, on Martin’s walk-off grand slam.

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Jeff Kent, mired in a one-for-26 slide, was held out of the starting lineup Sunday, but Little said that had nothing to do with the slump.

“It’s just a scheduled day off,” the manager said. “This isn’t for his production, it’s for his body, [to prepare] for the next three months.”

Kent entered the game as a pinch-hitter in the seventh, picking up a run batted in on a bases-loaded fielder’s choice grounder. He then finished up at second base, going 0 for 2 to leave him hitless in his last 18 at-bats. Despite the slump, Kent has been hitting the ball well the last week. Saturday night, for example, he flied out twice to the warning track.

“He’s making good contact,” Little said. “Maybe at times he tries to do a little bit too much. He’s hit in his share of bad luck during the last couple or three weeks.”

Kent, 39, who worked late in the Dodgers’ clubhouse Saturday poring over video of his recent at-bats, said slumps are part of the game -- and a part he’s better equipped to handle after 15 big league seasons.

“If you wouldn’t have these types of periods, you wouldn’t be a baseball player,” he said. “It’s just the nature of the game. You don’t worry about it. Sometimes it’s frustrating. [But] you can’t force fortune in this game.”

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The Dodgers sold 37-year-old triple-A catcher Kelly Stinnett to the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday. Stinnett, who signed a free-agent contract with the Dodgers in February, was hitting .196 in 102 at-bats at Las Vegas.

The Cardinals are in need of veteran catching help after losing Yadier Molina for a least a month because of a fractured wrist.

kevin.baxter@latimes.com