Dodger Bullpen

Why does Bill Russell continue to use Todd Worrell in the ninth inning? Is management forcing his hand? I know it is hard to pay a guy millions of dollars a year to go home and eat pickles and ice cream, but for the team's sake, eat the money and put some talent in there. LUCKY KALANGES, Los Angeles In continuing to rely on Todd Worrell as his closer, Bill Russell would do well to recall one of the definitions of "insanity": doing the same thing over and over again, but somehow expecting the results to be different.

SAN DIEGO - This day was bound to come. The Dodgers' relievers weren't going to be perfect forever. When the bullpen finally gave in Tuesday, it allowed the floodgates to open. Ronald Belisario, Paco Rodriguez, Matt Guerrier and J.P. Howell combined to give up six runs in the seventh and eighth innings, as the Dodgers fell to the San Diego Padres, 9-3. The Dodgers came into the game with their bullpen not having given up a single run in their first six games.

Saying he never liked facing the Dodgers, Gregg Olson was only too happy to join them Wednesday. The right-handed relief pitcher signed a two-year deal, with the club holding an option for a third season, to work out of the Dodger bullpen. Olson, who spent the last two seasons with the National League West rival Arizona Diamondbacks, figures to join Alan Mills and Terry Adams in setting up closer Jeff Shaw. "The more people you have in that role, the less pressure there is," Olson said.

Ah, if only life could always be this way for the Dodgers. Through their first six games, they have used 10 pitchers and only two of them have allowed an earned run. And the bullpen has been perfect. Six different relievers have made 14 combined appearances through the Dodgers' first six games and have yet to allow a run. Indeed, the bullpen has given up only one hit, a questionable infield single credited Sunday to Jose Tabata, even though if Nick Punto had made a good throw he would have been out. Tabata was given a single, and Punto an error that allowed Tabata to take second.

These are dangerous times for the Dodger bullpen. The starting rotation can't seem to last more than a handful of innings. The manager is grumbling. And now opposing batters are charging the mound. So it went Sunday as the Dodgers fell, 8-3, to the St. Louis Cardinals at Dodger Stadium, a dreary loss punctuated by Cardinal infielder Shawon Dunston going after reliever Jamie Arnold in the ninth inning.

Terry Mulholland and Mike Trombley? In the late afternoon Tuesday, after the trading deadline passed and before the Dodgers played the Cincinnati Reds, Jim Tracy and Dave Wallace took turns explaining how the Dodgers had enhanced their pennant hopes with the addition of two largely anonymous middle relievers instead of, say, a shortstop or another starting pitcher. As the evening turned out, the Dodger manager and the interim general manager did not need to say anything.

In one game Tuesday night, Will Clark did as much damage against the Dodgers as he had in all of 1988. And if the Dodgers were wondering how the Giant first baseman led the league in runs batted in last season, they found out Tuesday, when Clark drove in five runs with two doubles and a three-run home run, carrying San Francisco to an 8-3 win over the Dodgers before a crowd of 17,722 in Candlestick Park. The Dodger bullpen, which had not allowed an earned run in relief until Alejandro Pena balked home a run Monday night, yielded five straight hits in the seventh, when the Giants broke open the game with four runs.

It is a simple phrase, but one that could have saved the Dodgers and Tim Belcher plenty of grief in their 4-3 loss to the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field Saturday. If only Belcher had thought to use it when he was asked to hand his game to a slumping bullpen with a 3-2 lead in the seventh inning. "Over my dead body!"

Fred Claire, Dodger vice president, said Saturday that he will make changes in the struggling bullpen if its performance does not improve. "We can't continue to let games get away," Claire said, referring to the first-game loss in Friday's doubleheader with the Atlanta Braves. "We have to have somebody step up and do the job while Jay Howell is out. It's that simple. "As far as active trade discussions are concerned, we have nothing going now.

Forget about a program. What you need to tell your Dodger bullpen heroes is this handy pocket guide to nicknames. Clip and save. Bub is Brian Holton. Because when you greet Holton, he always says, "Hiya, Bub." Bunsy is Ken Howell. Because, let's just say he has a solid center of gravity. Bates is Tim Leary. Because he looks like Tony Perkins, who played Norman Bates in "Psycho." "I don't want to talk about it," Leary said when asked about his nickname. Perfect.

Yeah, right, there's an outcome you'd best not tie your little playoff hopes to. The one thing Ronald Belisario has been the past two years is completely unreliable. He'll always have 2009, when he was an absolute stud (2.04 ERA, .201 opponent batting average), but since then he's been all over the map, though largely in his native Venezuela. There was a DUI arrest and visa problems, a trip to the restricted list for substance-abuse treatment , a positive cocaine test and more visa problems, and a 25-game suspension to start the season.

Reporting from Washington — Chad Billingsley insisted he isn't hurt and Manager Don Mattingly said there are no signs that anything is physically wrong with the Dodgers right-hander— no skipped bullpen sessions, no visits to the trainer's room. Whatever it is, something is clearly wrong with Billingsley, who lasted only 21/3 innings in the Dodgers' 7-4 victory over the Washington Nationals in what was supposed to be the first game of a doubleheader on Thursday. The second game was rained out. Billingsley was charged with four runs, five hits and three walks.

It was evident in the third inning that Clayton Kershaw, at least early on, was not entirely on his game when he served up four consecutive balls and walked the opposing pitcher, Joe Saunders. But Kershaw then settled down and turned in a gem Friday night, throwing seven scoreless innings against the Arizona Diamondbacks and striking out 11 batters. Kershaw left with a 4-0 lead, which Dodgers relievers Matt Guerrier and Vicente Padilla nearly squandered. But the Dodgers held on to edge the Diamondbacks, 4-3, in the opener of their three-game series at Dodger Stadium, handing Arizona its fifth consecutive loss.

Reporting from Phoenix — Something appears to have clicked inside Matt Kemp. In the five games Kemp has played since his clear-the-air meeting with Manager Joe Torre, he is nine for 22 with three home runs, the most recent a two-run blast on Sunday that broke an eighth-inning stalemate and lifted the Dodgers to a 3-1 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field. Coincidence? Kemp's benching and the subsequent meeting last week remains a sensitive subject for both manager and player, who continue to be unresponsive when questioned about it. "You're going to have to ask him," Torre said.

During the Dodgers' recent homestand, Manager Joe Torre was asked a simple question: How long could his team afford to pitch the way it had before a roster move would be made? A smiling Torre leaned over from his seat on the dugout bench and playfully wrapped his Andre the Giant-sized hands around the inquisitor's neck, drawing laughs from the crowd. OK, maybe it was a little early in the season to imply the Dodgers were facing a crisis situation. But three days later, ineffective reliever Russ Ortiz was sent packing, offered Sunday the choice of pitching for their triple-A affiliate in Albuquerque or retiring.

There was wildness, whiffling, waffling, a proud kid being whittled into an absolute wreck. Clayton Kershaw walked the pitcher on four pitches. He walked the third baseman on four pitches. He put one on a tee for the catcher to crush into dark blue oblivion. Did I say he walked the pitcher on four pitches? With a 21-year-old sophomore bumping and staggering through a roomful of boos, the fifth inning Thursday contained every element of a textbook youthful playoff meltdown except for one. An adult to stop it. Where was Joe Torre?

There was no need to wonder what was going through Manager Tom Lasorda's mind Tuesday night as he watched his bullpen blow another lead. Nineteen times this season he has endured it, and it is clear the frustration is reaching epic proportions. The Dodgers, ahead by 4-2, gave up five runs in the eighth inning and lost, 7-4, to the New York Mets, who blew through three relievers on their way to victory.

As the Dodgers continue to operate a bullpen by committee, virtually all the members were heard from Sunday. The only exception was Frank Lankford as Jim Bruske, Mark Guthrie, Antonio Osuna, Scott Radinsky and Brad Clontz pitched five hitless innings before the Dodgers wrapped up a series sweep of the Chicago Cubs with a 4-3 victory in 12 innings and moved over .500 (12-11) for the first time.

Eighth inning, Dodgers leading Chicago Cubs by two swings, phone rings in the Dodgers' bullpen for their setup reliever. Hello? Is turmoil home? "I started taking my stuff off," George Sherrill said, "then somebody said, 'It's Brox,' and I'm like, 'Ohh.' " Ohh . So went the three-letter theme to the two-run Dodgers victory over the Cubs on Saturday, a 2-0 decision that featured a bullpen shake-up that could not have been more pronounced if the pen were actually inhabited by a bull.

Guillermo Mota has agreed to the terms of one-year contract to rejoin the Dodgers, according to baseball sources who were granted anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the matter. The deal is pending a physical, which is scheduled for today. Mota, a 35-year-old right-hander, pitched for the Dodgers from 2002 to 2004, primarily setting up closer Eric Gagne. He posted a 2.60 earned-run average in his two-plus seasons with the club but was traded to the Florida Marlins in 2004.