Control a Problem for Guthrie in Loss

ST. LOUIS â€”  Dodger relief pitcher Mark Guthrie sat alone in the dugout with his face buried in his hands for 15 minutes after walking in the winning run with the bases loaded and two out in the ninth inning of a 2-1 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday night.

“There’s no shock,� Guthrie said. “It was just a poor effort, there’s no excuse.�

Guthrie walked off the field at Busch Stadium with his head down, tore off his jersey and hurled it to the ground after throwing four consecutive balls to former Dodger Delino DeShields.

The last Dodger to enter the clubhouse, Guthrie sat at his locker stall and undressed deliberately. No one approached to console him.

“What should I say to him?� Manager Bill Russell said after the Dodgers’ third consecutive loss. “Got any suggestions?�

Brought in after Darren Hall intentionally walked pinch-hitter Willie McGee to load the bases, Guthrie offered no excuses after he failed to throw a strike.

“I was plenty warm, I’d stopped throwing in the pen,� Guthrie said. “I just didn’t execute. I steered four balls in there.

“If I knew what the problem was I would have tried to correct it. After the first pitch I tried to throw every pitch right down the middle of the plate and couldn’t. There’s nothing I can say.�

Hall (0-2), who got the loss, giving up a run on two hits and and two walks in two-thirds of an inning, felt responsible.

“I put us in a position with the bad pitches I was throwing to bring Mark into that game,� Hall said.

After giving up a one-out double to John Mabry, Hall intentionally walked pinch-hitter Mark Sweeney to get to shortstop Royce Clayton.

Clayton slapped a sharp single to left, but left fielder Todd Hollandsworth threw out Mabry at the plate to preserve the tie.

Hollandsworth cleanly fielded Clayton’s sinking liner and threw a one-hopper to catcher Mike Piazza, who blocked the plate.

“I tried to set up the double play when I walked Sweeney and I still made another bad pitch,� Hall said. “Mark shouldn’t have even had to be in that game. It all falls back to me.�

The Dodgers, who failed to score after getting runners to first and second with one out in the eighth inning when Eric Anthony struck out and Raul Mondesi popped out to catcher Mike Difelice, have scored only three runs in their last two games.

“We have no clue at times, we’re kind of clueless,� said Piazza, who had one hit in four at-bats.

Starter Ramon Martinez, who scored the Dodgers’ only run after a leadoff double in the sixth inning, agreed.

“Let’s say you have the worst team in the league, they hit and get a winning streak, but we haven’t done that,� Martinez said. “We have a great team but we’re not a great team.

“We have a good team, but something’s missing.�

Runs are what’s missing. The Dodgers rank next to the last in the National League with 185 runs.

“We have to find a way to find some consistency in our offense,� Piazza said. “We’ve been hitting the ball pretty hard, but we can’t seem to get that big hit. What else can you say? We’ve said it a million times.�

Martinez was superb, giving up only one run on four hits with five strikeouts and four walks in seven innings before he was pulled for pinch-hitter Nelson Liriano with one out in the top of the eighth inning with the score tied 1-1.

But the Dodger batters couldn’t do their part, stranding five runners.

After giving up a two-out, run-scoring double to Cardinal starter Andy Benes in the fifth inning, Martinez got even in the sixth.

Martinez, who had only one hit in 25 at-bats this season, doubled into the left-field corner to lead off the inning, then moved to second on Wilton Guerrero’s sacrifice bunt.

Anthony then drove in Martinez with a single to right to tie the score.