Kent’s Words Fail to Inspire

CHICAGO —  With his team collapsing around him, Jeff Kent called a meeting late Saturday night. He looked around at the young players and career minor leaguers that now populate the clubhouse, and he told them they had the talent to win if they could show the smarts to win and learn from their mistakes instead of repeating them.

On Sunday, the Dodgers failed again. They made three errors, their setup man committed a cardinal sin, their bullpen coughed up another late lead and their first baseman messed up the kind of play you practice in the first week of spring training.

And they lost, of course, for the sixth consecutive game. The Chicago White Sox capped a sweep with a 4-3 victory, dropping the Dodgers 4 1/2 games behind the first-place San Diego Padres in the National League West. For the first time since May 2003, the Dodgers are two games under .500.

The Dodgers play the Padres seven times in the next 10 days, with a four-game series starting tonight in San Diego. If the team keeps fading, July could be the month the Dodgers auction veterans and start playing for 2006.

“You don’t think the games should be this important in June, but they are, 100%, for us right now,” said pitcher Jeff Weaver, who could be traded to a contender if the Dodgers decide they are not one.

When the Dodgers arrived here, they had led 25 games after seven innings and won all of them. But with closer Eric Gagne injured and probably out for the season, understudy Yhency Brazoban blew a 3-1 lead by giving up four runs in the ninth inning Saturday, and Duaner Sanchez blew a 3-2 lead by giving up two runs in the eighth inning Sunday.

“There’s a measure of uncertainty from a consistency standpoint,” Manager Jim Tracy said. “That’s something you deal with, with young people. It’s not pointing a finger at anyone.”

The White Sox scored two runs in the sixth inning, thanks largely to errors by Weaver and outfielder Jason Repko. They scored two more in the eighth, an inning that began with Sanchez walking Frank Thomas to put the potential tying run on base.

Pablo Ozuna ran for Thomas, and Scott Podsednik bunted. Catcher Jason Phillips fielded the bunt and threw to Kent, who stretched to make the catch at first base. Podsednik was ruled safe, although replays showed he was out, and Kent went ballistic.

After the game, however, the Dodgers appeared less upset with the call than with first baseman Hee-Seop Choi, who didn’t get out of the way on the play, forcing Phillips to throw wide.

Kent, asked whether he had a clean line of sight on the throw, said, “No. Nor did Jason.”

Willie Harris moved the runners along with a bunt, Aaron Rowand singled them home and the White Sox had the winning runs.

“I was flabbergasted at the game in general,” Phillips said. “I don’t know what to say. You think you’ve seen it all, and then something comes along that you’ve never seen.

“There are just so many things that just snowballed. I don’t know. Maybe I should just play cricket.”