Dodgers Fall to Padres, 8-3

The musical stylings of Sebastian Bach were bouncing off the walls Tuesday afternoon, the rocker belting out “18 & Life,� “Youth Gone Wild� and other late ‘80s tunes on the Dodger clubhouse sound system.

The name of Bach’s back-in-the-day band?

Skid Row.

Turns out the Dodgers’ hopes of beating the first-place San Diego Padres later that evening would be just as woebegone as the moniker of the group.

A third-inning error by second baseman Jeff Kent opened the door for the Padres, and they poured it on later with a resounding 8-3 win over the Dodgers in front of an announced 47,695 at Dodger Stadium.

And despite the Dodgers’ recently enduring an eight-game losing streak and dropping 12 of their last 15 games, Manager Jim Tracy spun the result ... sort of.

“This is the first time in the last two weeks we didn’t play well,� Tracy said.

So monotonous were the first seven innings, possibly the loudest reaction from the crowd came in the middle of the seventh when a fan ran on the field and eluded security from the right-field corner until he gave himself up at shortstop.

There, he was corralled by security and led off through the center-field gate to a waiting police car as fans threw a few objects on the field.

The Dodgers (36-41), who fell 6 1/2 games behind the Padres, had as much luck against San Diego starter Brian Lawrence as the fan did against security.

The right-handed Lawrence, who began the game with a 9-5 record against the Dodgers with a 2.58 earned-run average in 23 appearances, shut them out through seven innings while giving up four hits.

Lawrence (5-6) ended up charged with two runs and five hits in 7 1/3 innings.

In what could be Elmer Dessens’ final start for the Dodgers for a while -- his spot comes up again Monday at Colorado, but Dodger Manager Jim Tracy said Odalis Perez could come off the disabled list to start Sunday and that rookie D.J. Houlton would remain in the rotation -- Dessens (0-1) gave up three runs, only one of which was earned, and six hits in five innings.

The right-hander struck out two batters and walked two but threw 86 pitches, only 47 for strikes.

“I wasn’t aggressive,� he said.

The Padres (43-35) got to Dessens in the third inning thanks to the two-out error by Kent.

After Ryan Klesko’s grounder got through Kent’s legs, Brian Giles doubled off the fence in right-center, putting Padres at second and third. Robert Fick’s single gave San Diego a 2-0 lead.

Still, Dessens said he was not blaming Kent, who made a similar miscue at the Chicago White Sox on June 17 that cost him.

“My job is to make an out,� Dessens said. “I wasn’t thinking about that.�

And the prospect of losing his rotation spot?

“I don’t know,� he said. “I just have to come back, work hard and be more aggressive.�

The punchless Dodgers scored their first run on a bases-loaded walk and their next two on a Rudy Seanez wild pitch.

“Something’s hanging around,� catcher Jason Phillips said, referring to the Dodgers’ run of bad luck.

“We make a mistake, and then a six-hopper finds a hole to score two runs.

“We show up to the yard with a great positive attitude. We have to keep going.�

Either that or find their season’s fortunes residing on skid row.