Encore isn’t quite grand for Dodgers

The Dodgers were sloppy and sleepy Sunday, playing for the most part as if they’d partied hard a night earlier.

They had, of course, romping and rollicking after Russell Martin’s walk-off grand slam in the 10th inning gave them a comeback victory. But sometimes revelry comes with a price.

There were no such heroics against the Pittsburgh Pirates during a drizzly afternoon at Dodger Stadium, only a 7-5 loss they can easily forget because they still lead the major leagues in victories with 13, still won a series for the fifth time in seven tries and are off today to regroup before facing National League West Division opponents the next nine games.

Martin came up again with the bases loaded, this time in the eighth inning with the Dodgers trailing by four runs, but the only home run was a replay of his shot a night earlier on the Jumbotron screen. He hit a sacrifice fly and pinch-hitter Nomar Garciaparra singled to drive in another run, but Damaso Marte -- the third Pirates reliever in the inning -- got pinch-hitter Ramon Martinez to ground out, stranding two runners.

“I got the pitch for it, but got under it,” Martin said. “It was a challenge fastball on a full count, down the middle. I just didn’t hit it.”

The Dodgers are hardly a team that can expect to have multiple miscues absolved with one swing of the bat very often -- they have hit only 11 home runs. And they inflicted too much damage on themselves to overcome with the paltry eighth-inning rally built on two singles and two walks.

There were the three errors that contributed to the Pirates’ three runs in the first three innings. Martin’s throwing error enabled Chris Duffy to advance to third after a stolen base, and a groundout scored him in the first. Second baseman Jeff Kent’s throwing error and Juan Pierre’s dropped fly ball fueled a two-run third.

There was the home run by Adam LaRoche in the sixth inning -- the first homer against the Dodgers in 64 innings -- and Brett Tomko’s loss of focus thereafter. The right-hander gave up a double, single and walk immediately after LaRoche’s blast, and the Pirates extended their lead to 5-2.

“I felt like I threw the ball well today, everything was where I wanted it to be,” Tomko said. “It was one thing after another. Usually you see a freak thing here and there. It seemed like it was something different every inning.”

There were the two runs surrendered in the seventh by reliever Chad Billingsley, who gave up a single, a walk and Jason Bay’s two-run double while recording only one out.

“I kept going away to Bay, and he was hanging over the plate fouling them off,” Billingsley said. “I should have come inside, and I didn’t. I have to make quicker adjustments out there.”

And there were the futile Dodgers at-bats against left-hander Tom Gorzelanny, who was solved only by noted Pirates nemesis Olmedo Saenz over six innings.

Saenz doubled and scored in the fourth and homered in the sixth, improving to 24 for 52 against Pittsburgh. But he struck out with two on and one out in the ninth against Salomon Torres, who then got Jeff Kent to ground out to end the game.

The Dodgers are off today after 10 consecutive games -- a two-city, four-day trip sandwiched by three-game series at home. “I need one of them days off,” said the 39-year-old Kent, who is batting .328 after going 0 for 5.

steve.henson@latimes.com