Dodgers’ Long Approach Comes Up Just a Bit Short

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Hee-Seop Choi hit his daily home run. J.D. Drew hit one too. Jeff Weaver gave up two.

And yet, after Tuesday’s 3-2 loss to the Kansas City Royals, the long ball was hardly a subject of discussion in the Dodger clubhouse. With an announced crowd of 15,575 on its feet, the Dodgers bet on “little ball” in the ninth inning -- and lost.

Manager Jim Tracy played this one by the book, with no apologies or regrets.

The Dodgers have scored their last 10 runs on solo homers, but they left nine men on base Tuesday and went hitless in seven at-bats with men in scoring position.

“The game boils down to one thing,” Tracy said. “We left too many men on base.”

For all those failures, however, the Dodgers still trailed by one run in the ninth inning. The Royals called on their relatively undistinguished closer, Mike MacDougal. After Jason Phillips singled to start the inning, Tracy inserted Jason Repko as a pinch-runner and ordered Antonio Perez to bunt.

“You want to get the tying run into scoring position,” Tracy said.

With Perez followed by Cesar Izturis and then Choi -- “probably the hottest hitter in baseball,” Tracy said -- the manager said he also wanted to avoid a double play that could have left Choi on deck as the game ended.

But, in 97 at-bats as a Dodger, Perez has neither sacrificed nor grounded into a double play. He is hitting .357. And MacDougal has given up 32 hits and 14 walks in 31 innings, hardly the statistics of a dominant closer.

Perez bunted foul for strike one, bunted foul for strike two, then struck out swinging. He declined to comment after the game, but Izturis endorsed Tracy’s strategy.

“It’s baseball. You’ve got to bunt right there,” Izturis said. “You’ve got to put the bunt down.”

With Repko still at first base, Izturis bunted -- on his own, going for a hit, but poorly and right at MacDougal.

“I saw the third baseman back,” Izturis said. “I tried to get a base hit. Choi was behind me. I didn’t want to hit into a double play, because the inning would be over.”

So Repko did get into scoring position -- he took second on Izturis’ bunt -- and Choi did get up. He grounded out for the final out.

He homered in the first inning, his seventh in 13 at-bats. He has homered in four consecutive games. Drew homered in the third inning.

The Royals got two home runs as well -- a two-run shot from David DeJesus in the first inning and the game-winner, in the fifth inning, the first major league homer for Shane Costa.

Weaver pitched well overall, giving up three runs over seven innings, with one walk and six strikeouts. He lost.

“Once our offense gets going again,” he said, “all of us will benefit from it.”