Major League Baseball

Steady Loney must carry Dodgers

Published Jun. 29, 2010 1:00 a.m. ET

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For several weeks now, Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp have contributed little to the Dodgers’ offensive effort. And Manny Ramirez came up lame during the daylight hours at AT&T Park on Tuesday night.

So, at least for the time being, Joe Torre’s postseason hopes will ride on the steady left-handed bat of James Loney.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Loney has very quietly been the Dodgers’ most valuable player this season. The first baseman demonstrated that again in Tuesday’s 4-2 triumph over the Giants.

His first-inning single produced the first Los Angeles run.

His seven-pitch at-bat, punctuated by a line shot into right field, broke open a tie game in the fifth.

His sweeping scoop of an in-the-dirt throw completed a seventh-inning double play.

Ethier? He hasn’t hit for power since returning from a fractured right pinky finger.

Kemp? He has a bat rack of his very own inside Torre’s doghouse.

Manny? He might be on his way to the disabled list for the second time this year.

Loney? He plays.

“He just doesn’t seek the attention,” said Dodgers outfielder Garret Anderson, who didn’t do much attention-seeking during the best years of his career, either.

“People who write columns and write articles don’t really pay attention to guys who don’t have fanfare. That’s the way it is. He does his job. You don’t see a lot of excess stuff from him as far as the way he acts.”

Loney has been a metronome for the otherwise erratic Dodgers lineup. (“Steady,” Dodgers executive Logan White said Tuesday. “A great makeup guy.”) Loney leads the team with 54 RBIs — only three fewer than Albert Pujols. And his more famous teammates ought to thank him for papering over their shortcomings.

If Loney hadn’t punched through that fifth-inning single, we might be talking about the poor at-bats Ethier (jam-shot pop fly) and Kemp (strikeout) had immediately beforehand.

Ethier will probably be an All-Star, but he isn’t playing like one now. On Tuesday, he took uncomfortable swings and jammed himself on inside pitches. Torre said the finger is no longer an issue for Ethier. Still, it’s obvious that something is not right.

When he was placed on the disabled list in May, Ethier was leading the National League with a .392 batting average. But he’s hitting just .220 — with one home run — since returning from the DL on the final day of May.

Kemp, of course, is another matter entirely.

He was absent from the lineup for three consecutive games, including Tuesday’s. Torre said Kemp wasn’t benched for disciplinary reasons, but MLB.com reported that the decision was linked to a dugout disagreement between Kemp and a member of the coaching staff Saturday.

Kemp initiated a pregame meeting with Torre after learning that he wasn’t in Tuesday’s lineup. Kemp was apparently contrite enough during the session, because Torre declared soon afterward that he would start in Wednesday’s series finale.

But the drama is unlikely to abate that quickly. Whether causation or correlation, Kemp hasn’t been the same hitter since Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti criticized him publicly in late April.

We don’t know if Colletti’s comments had a negative impact on Kemp. And we don’t know how he’ll respond to this week’s benching — even though he went 2-for-4 with two superb catches in center field after replacing the injured Ramirez.

“I hide my emotions, you know?” Kemp said before the game. “If something’s bothering me, I’m not going to really let any of you guys, or anybody, see that I’m mad. That’s how I’ve always been. I get mad all the time. But I’m not one of those show-emotion type of guys.

“I do care. What’s going on right now ... I feel like if I play better, we’d have more ground on where we’re at right now.”

Kemp’s bat will be needed in the weeks to come, particularly if Ramirez hits the DL again. (The team should know more about his hamstring Wednesday.) The Dodgers went 6-8 during Manny’s last stay in the infirmary, because of a calf injury.

And Loney the Reliable can’t do it every night.

“The only time you get appreciated for your consistency is when your career’s over,” Anderson said, seeing a little of himself in the Dodgers’ understated hero. “During your career, you don’t get appreciated for it. It’s the truth. I’ve lived it.”

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