Little Veers Away From an Alliance

PITTSBURGH —  The vaunted Sandy Alomar Jr.-Odalis Perez battery alliance lasted all of one start.

Alomar, who never understood why Manager Grady Little wanted him to become Perez’s personal catcher, doesn’t need to worry about it. He will catch Wednesday, with Brett Tomko pitching.

“We’re straying off playing him with Odalis Perez,” Little said. “At this point we’re not going to be stuck on that.”

Alomar caught Perez late in spring training and Little liked how they meshed. But in his first start, Perez gave up nine hits and seven runs in three innings, and Alomar questioned the arrangement.

Perez gave up one run in 5 1/3 innings in the victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday with Dioner Navarro catching.

Little said he has since realized that the schedule will determine when Alomar can best be used to give Navarro a break.

“We don’t want to get into a position where we are overplaying this guy,” Little said of Alomar. “We want to have him for the whole season.”

Alomar is off to a hot start, batting .467 with two three-hit games.

*

Jason Repko is a work in progress in center field. He hustles and is capable of making sensational plays, such as the sliding catch he made of Jason Bay’s sinking liner in the sixth inning Monday. However, there were two near-collisions a day earlier when Repko and other outfielders battled the sun in Philadelphia. On one play, Repko cut in front of right fielder J.D. Drew to make a catch.

“It was my fault because I called it late,” Repko said. “The sun wasn’t directly in my eyes and I think it was bothering him more. But I’ve got to say something sooner.”

The episode also illustrated Little’s hands-off approach: “There was a whole lot of assuming going on out there and it’s unnecessary. But I let them deal with it themselves.”

Repko is having no such problems at the plate. Given a chance to play every day because Kenny Lofton is on the disabled list, Repko is batting .370.

*

With three rookies and another pitcher in his first full season, the Dodger bullpen also is a work in progress. After two years of dealing with a substandard bullpen as manager of the Boston Red Sox in 2002 and 2003, Little sounds pleased just to have some live arms.

“You’re talking to a guy here who went without a closer,” Little said. “You start asking for a set-up man and somebody for the sixth and seventh innings, that’s a pure luxury to me.”

The unpredictable outings from rookies Tim Hamulack, Takashi Saito and Hong-Chih Kuo and second-year right-hander Franquelis Osoria and third-year right-hander Yhency Brazoban don’t bother Little -- yet.

“It takes time for guys to settle into roles,” he said.

As for a steady set-up man for closer Danys Baez until Eric Gagne returns?

“We’ll determine that by how well they pitch,” Little said.

It took Osoria, Hamulack, Saito and Brazoban to take care of the Pirates the last 3 2/3 innings. They gave up eight hits but pitched out of several jams.