DODGERS STUCK IN FREEFALL GET ROUTED BY CARDS, FINISH 2-4 ON ROAD TRIP.

Byline: TONY JACKSON 

Staff Writer

ST. LOUIS -- Hanging on a wall in the visiting manager's office at Busch Stadium, just above the head Grady Little was still scratching for answers Sunday, was a St. Louis Cardinals calendar.

The picture accompanying the month of August was from last fall, and it showed the home team gathered in a celebratory scrum on the infield during those first jubilant moments after it won the World Series.

There was a time, and it wasn't that long ago, when the Dodgers could at least dream of achieving a similar euphoria for themselves. But following their latest indignity, a 12-2 humiliation by the Cardinals in front of asellout crowd of 45,379, it was becoming difficult for the Dodgers to envision much of anything beyond the end of the regular season.

Come to think of it, the end of the regular season was starting to sound rather euphoric in its own right.

A week earlier, following a homestand on which the Dodgers dropped five of six, Little had used the words "rock bottom" to describe the state of his team.

That was just before the Dodgers embarked on a crucial, six-game trip through the sweltering Midwest. But if there is anything to be learned from said trip, which in truth was far more disastrous for the Dodgers than their 2-4 record would indicate, it is that no matter how bad things might seem, they can always get worse.

If the homestand was rock bottom, the road trip was the jackhammer.

"We just have to find a way to win some games," Dodgers left fielder Luis Gonzalez said. "It doesn't help that while we're not playing well, the teams ahead of us are winning games, so we can't close the gap. We're running out of time here with (seven) weeks to go. If you look at Arizona, they won (17) out of (20). They got on a run, and we have to hope we can find a way to catch a run like that, too. We haven't had one all year, and we haven't had two or three guys hot at the same time."

With the exception of Andre Ethier, who now has five extra-base hits in his past nine at-bats, the Dodgers (60-57) don't have anybody who is hot right now. Jeff Kent, the aging star around whom their offense is built, had one hit on the trip and now is hitless in his past 19 at-bats.

Gonzalez was 2 for 15 on the trip. Leadoff man Rafael Furcal went 4 for 25 with one walk.

Granted, the Dodgers weren't going to win the finale, anyway. Not on a 99-degree afternoon when left-hander Mark Hendrickson was bombed for eight earned runs on 11 hits over 22/3 innings, a performance that undoubtedly would have put his rotation spot in jeopardy if the Dodgers had an alternative anywhere in the organization, which they don't.

But it also is worth noting that Hendrickson (4-7) became the second consecutive Dodgers starting pitcher, joining Derek Lowe on Saturday, to give up more runs in the bottom of the first inning than the Dodgers would score in the entire game. This time, it was a three-run blast by Cardinals left fielder Ryan Ludwick, a part-time player who wound up driving in four runs, that did in the Dodgers.

"I gave up too many runs early and put us behind," Hendrickson said. "That isn't good, given the way we are playing right now."

And given the way they are hitting, especially with men in scoring position.

The Dodgers scored a total of 10 runs on the trip, half of them in a single, 11-inning game. They also went a putrid 2 for 42 with runners in scoring position, including 0 for 16 in three games with the Cardinals.

Talk about rock bottom. These Dodgers couldn't even hit Anthony Reyes. The former USC star and embattled Cardinals right-hander came in with a 1-11 mark and a 5.66 ERA. But he still managed to hold the Dodgers to two runs on seven hits over six innings and walk away with a victory tucked into those high, striped socks he routinely wears while pitching.

"He was the same as everyone we have been facing the past couple of weeks -- we struggle, struggle, struggle," Little said. "It's disappointing, because there are a lot of people out there we are depending on, and it just isn't happening for us.

"This just isn't good enough."

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) St. Louis' Gary Bennett gets past the Dodgers' Mike Lieberthal and scores on Anthony Reyes' single in the third inning.

(2) Umpire Paul Nauert tries to get relief from the 99-degree heat in St. Louis on Sunday.

Tom Gannam/Associated Press