Monday, July 18, 2005 | 9:17 a.m.
LOS ANGELES - It's the ironic pattern of a losing team. When the runs come, the pitching doesn't; when the pitching is strong, the offense struggles.
As the Dodgers closed out a four-game homestand with the San Francisco Giants on Sunday, Jeff Weaver threw a seven-inning gem and waited for the run support to come. It didn't, and Michael Tucker's three-run homer in the ninth led the Giants to a 4-1 victory at Dodger Stadium.
Time after time, he watched from the dugout as Dodgers came to the plate with runners in scoring position.
And time after time, he was let down, the Dodgers batting 1-for-13 the eight times they had runners in scoring position.
Weaver, who gave up five hits and one run while striking out five in his seven innings, looked most frustrated after Jeff Kent slid head-on into first base with runners on second and third and two out in the seventh inning. He stormed back into the clubhouse after Kent was called out.
"It was an unbelievable play by (shortstop Omar) Vizquel," Weaver said. "It was a situation where we could have taken the lead, and they come up with an outstanding play."
He said his reaction was an indication of what the team as a whole is going through.
"We're all losing," he said. "The frustrating part is just coming up short. It's a matter of a two-out hit, a two-out pitch deciding the game."
Tucker's home run came with reliever Yhency Brazoban, filling the shoes left by the injured Eric Gagne, on the brink of sending the game to the bottom of the ninth. With two outs, he gave up a ground-rule double to Jason Ellison that could have been a triple had the ball not bounced into the stands. He struck Alex Sanchez in the leg next, setting the stage for Tucker's longball on a 2-2 count and sending much of the announced crowd of 47,719 out to try and beat the traffic.
"It was just a regular fastball he hit out," Brazoban said through an interpreter. "It's a little frustrating. (Weaver) had done a great job and of course I wanted to help him."
But the Dodgers wouldn't have been in the situation to begin with had they cashed in on the scoring opportunities they had in the prior eight innings. Of the seven men stranded in scoring position, three reached base with one out and Jeff Kent was left at second after a leadoff double in the fourth.
"It's something we've been able to do - get a key hit at the right time," Dodgers manager Jim Tracy said. "We had a number of opportunities today to do that. When you only score one run you have to shut the other team out in order to win. We had more chances to get a big hit than they did."
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