Los Angeles
If Dodger Stadium, decorated with photos of Hall of Famers and filled with World Series memories, is a baseball museum, then what has happened during the past 72 hours desecrated the sport.
While taking nothing away from the awesome willpower of first baseman Todd Helton or the smart moves of manager Clint Hurdle, the Rockies are very much alive in the National League playoff race because the Los Angeles Dodgers rolled over and played dead.
“We’re doing the best we can,” L.A. manager Grady Little insisted on Thursday, before turning in a lineup card that could not have been a bigger joke if it was filled out by Larry the Cable Guy.
The Rockies won a 10-4 laugher that could make fans of playoff contenders from Philadelphia to San Diego open a newspaper this morning and curse a Dodger Blue streak.
“That’s because they don’t know. And that’s the bottom line,” said Little, a congenial man, but somebody who usually answers questions with all the enthusiasm of a dial tone.
With no due respect, there’s a lot of dog in his Dodgers.
Is it too much for the Phillies, Diamondbacks and Padres, who all should be sweating as Colorado extended its amazing winning streak, to ask Los Angeles to put forth a professional effort so long as a wild-card berth is on the line?
For the second consecutive night during a three-game sweep by Colorado, Little used a batting order that was a whole lot of Chin-Lung Hu and what’s that?
Retired greats Dusty Baker, Steve Garvey and Ron Cey were honored before the opening pitch for hitting 30 homers in 1977. The Dodgers would have had a better chance if Little had asked those old guys to lace up their spikes and take the field.
“We’re doing the best we can, with as much respect for the game as we possibly can. If these people that formulate these opinions form them, so be it,” said Little, who did not take kindly to any suggestion the Dodgers might still have bats in the rack, but they’ve packed it in emotionally.
Seven of the 11 victories in Colorado’s current winning streak have been against the Dodgers.
The Rockies won this time because Hurdle adroitly used four pitchers to wriggle out of a jam in the sixth inning, then, in the next frame, Helton busted open the game by pushing Colorado’s lead to 6-3 with a wicked blast to right field for a two-run homer, putting a hurtin’ on the baseball in a way that recalled his glory days.
“Have I adjusted my game? Yeah,” Helton told me earlier in this series. “But I have to adjust my game every day, depending on how I feel and whether I’ve got my ‘D’ swing working or my ‘A’ swing working.”
Super agent Scott Boras has observed that while Helton’s power might be in decline, his prowess with the glove and his ability to rake doubles now evokes memories of former great first baseman Keith Hernandez. Which ain’t bad.
“If you go out and play one baseball game, you don’t get sore. You go out and play 162 of them and nothing has a chance to heal. Your back goes out of whack and you don’t get to take a month off, you’ve got to run back out there,” Helton said.
“You battle through all that stuff. And depending on how good the Advil is working that day, you see whether you can hit the ball out of the ballpark or not.”
Helton’s big blow was the final stake through a Los Angeles team that has no heart. Among the 50,000 spectators in attendance at the ballpark on a beautiful autumn evening were Dodgers veterans Jeff Kent, Nomar Garciaparra and Rafael Furcal.
“When you look at our ballclub, there are some fans on the East Coast that don’t know some of these players,” Little said.
In the heat of a playoff race, when even teams that have been eliminated have a obligation to compete, there’s a worse sin than the anonymous names scribbled by Little on his L.A. lineup card.
It’s called the apathy of a proud organization that has quit caring.
Staff writer Mark Kiszla can be reached at 303-954-1053 or mkiszla@denverpost.com.
