Smoltz Stifles Dodgers

Well, if nothing else, at least Friday night the Dodgers had a legitimate excuse.

There was no reason to search for reasons to explain their sixth consecutive defeat, 4-2, to the Atlanta Braves in front of 38,735 at Dodger Stadium.

The Dodgers were facing defending Cy Young Award winner John Smoltz, and considering the way they’ve been hitting of late, it was a moral victory to avoid the shutout.

“We played them close,” Manager Bill Russell said, searching for something positive to say about the Dodgers’ ninth defeat in the last 12 games. “We did get two runs off him.

“Close is great, but you still have to come out a winner, and that’s what Atlanta does. They’re doing things to win the close games, and we’re not there yet.”

The Dodgers (23-22) aren’t even in the same stratosphere. They simply are grateful for baseball realignment, knowing that if the Braves still were in the National League West, they’d be nine games behind.

Yet, even without the Braves, the Dodgers find themselves in third place--four games behind the San Francisco Giants. The Dodgers now are closer to last place than first, only three games ahead of the San Diego Padres.

“There’s frustration, no doubt about it,” injured outfielder Brett Butler said. “But that doesn’t mean there has to be any drastic changes, or any changes at all.

“Every club goes through it during the year. You just have to persevere.”

The trouble, of course, is having to persevere playing against the Braves, who have won the NL pennant four of the last five years. If that’s not difficult enough, they realize that this might be the best Braves’ team yet.

“It’s hard to say this team is the best,” Atlanta shortstop Jeff Blauser said, “until we finish the season and see what we accomplish. Until we win the ultimate prize, you can’t say it’s the best one.”

Yet, while the Braves and Dodgers’ pitching staffs are so close in talent, it’s the offense that separates them. The Braves have scored 68 more runs than the Dodgers, and the result has been 10 more victories.

“In the past, we always found a way to win ballgames,” Atlanta first baseman Fred McGriff said, “but we always struggled to score runs. We figured if we got good pitching, we’d score a couple of runs, and be all right.

“Things have changed now.”

Still, despite the vast offensive difference, the Braves still believe the Dodgers are the team to beat in the National League West.

“When you look at the Dodgers,” Blauser said, “their pitching will keep them in a lot of games. You don’t have to score six or seven runs every night to win. Look at our team that won the [1995] World Series. We were second- or third-to-last in offense.”

The Braves, with a dramatically different offense with Kenny Lofton and Michael Tucker atop their lineup, continued their dominance of Dodger starter Pedro Astacio (3-3), beating him for the ninth consecutive time. The Braves were clinging to a 2-1 lead in the sixth inning, but broke it open when Ryan Klesko hit a two-out, two-run homer.

Smoltz never gave the Dodgers a chance to recover. The Dodgers, who got their first run on Todd Zeile’s run-scoring single in the fourth inning, threatened for the last time in the seventh.

Eric Karros led off with a single to right, his second hit of the game. Zeile immediately hit into a double-play grounder. It proved critical when Eric Anthony, who robbed Lofton of extra bases with a diving catch in the top of the seventh, followed with a home run into the right-field pavilion. Lofton dropped Greg Gagne’s long fly for a two-base error, but pinch-hitter Billy Ashley grounded out to first.

The Dodgers now have scored two or fewer runs in nine of the last 19 games. “This team has got too much talent to talent to keep us down,” Anthony said. “We’ll be OK. You’ll see.”