It’s Bad News for the Dodgers

The most recent addition to their starting rotation turned in another pedestrian performance Thursday night, spotting the opposition an early five-run lead, and the Dodgers lost to the San Francisco Giants, 5-4, at Dodger Stadium.

Their three-game winning streak ended and they dropped out of a three-way tie for first place in the National League West, falling to third.

But that wasn’t the worst of it.

Eric Gagne, possibly facing season-ending surgery to repair two herniated disks in his lower back, might have pitched his last game for the Dodgers.

“It doesn’t sound good,� Manager Grady Little said of Gagne’s condition.

The once-dominant closer is hospitalized after waking Tuesday with back pain and, if surgery is needed, the Dodgers probably would not exercise the $12-million option in his contract for next season.

All in all, it was a forgettable Thursday for the Dodgers, except maybe for Nomar Garciaparra, who was voted onto the National League All-Star team and extended his hitting streak to 18 games.

Left-hander Mark Hendrickson, making his Dodger Stadium debut after being acquired last week in a trade with the Tampa Devil Rays, lost for the second time in two starts with the Dodgers, giving up five early runs and nine hits.

A 6-foot-9 former basketball player who grew up in Whittier and saw his first major league game at Dodger Stadium, Hendrickson has played for only one professional team that won more games than it lost, the 2003 Toronto Blue Jays.

And that team still finished 15 games out of first place.

So he was excited about the chance to bolster the Dodgers.

“In 10 years of professional sports,� he said last week, “this is the first time I’ve really been on a team that had a chance to win it all.�

His Dodgers debut last Saturday, however, did not go well.

In a 9-2 loss to the Angels, he was the victim of shoddy defense, including his own throwing error. The Dodgers made three errors in all, leading to five unearned runs, and Hendrickson gave up seven hits in five innings.

Still, Little said of the lanky left-hander, “I like the way he works quickly, I like the way he throws strikes. He’ll have a lot of success here.�

But maybe not right away.

He wasn’t hit hard by the Giants, but they jumped on him early anyway, pushing across three runs on four hits in the first inning, each of the runs scoring on grounders that never left the infield: singles by Moises Alou and Pedro Feliz, and a run-scoring groundout by Ray Durham.

“They hit it on the ground, just like where we’d like it to be hit,� Little said, “but it was going everywhere the infielders weren’t standing.�

Another infield single by Alou in the third started a two-run inning that pushed the Giants’ lead to 5-0. Feliz’s groundout scored Alou, who had moved to third on a double by Durham, and Durham scored on a double by Lance Niekro.

Perhaps spotting a trend, the Dodger scored their first run on an infield single too. Garciaparra’s third-inning chopper traveled no more than about 50 feet up the third-base line after Rafael Furcal had led off the inning with a double and Kenny Lofton followed with a single against Giants starter Matt Cain.

Ramon Martinez’s one-out walk loaded the bases for Andre Either, who flied out to the warning track to score Lofton and cut the deficit to 5-2.

The Dodgers loaded the bases again in the fifth, chasing Cain after Garciaparra was hit by a pitch for the fourth time in four games and J.D. Drew’s dribbler got past the mound for yet another infield single. That brought up Martinez, who grounded into a run-scoring double play against Brad Hennessey, making the score 5-3.

Garciaparra was hit by a pitch again in the seventh inning. He scored on a single by Martinez and the Giants’ lead was cut to 5-4.

“It’s unfortunate,� Little said of Garciaparra’s being plunked twice after being hit three times Monday night, “but this kid is leading the league in hitting. Other teams are pressing inside. Some are just getting away.�