Broxton can’t get the hang of it as Dodgers lose again

SAN FRANCISCO -- Grady Little was red in the face. The room was silent. And the clock above the doorway in the Dodgers’ clubhouse was ticking.

The Dodgers were five outs away from moving to within 1 1/2 games of the wild-card lead Sunday, only to blow their second late-inning lead in three days and fall, 4-2, to the San Francisco Giants on a three-run home run by Ray Durham in the eighth inning at AT&T; Park.

Serving up the homer by Durham, which overcame two solo shots by Jeff Kent, was Jonathan Broxton, who until late last month had an improbable run of 94 games without giving up a home run. Now he is in the midst of another improbable run, in which he has given up three homers in four games, the latest to a man who began the day with the lowest average in the National League among hitters eligible for a batting title.

“We shot ourselves in the foot this series,” center fielder Juan Pierre said. “It would’ve been a big win today. Now, it’s a sub-par road trip.”

By losing two of three to the last-place Giants, the Dodgers finished their three-city trip 5-5 and squandered a chance to pull closer to the San Diego Padres in the wild-card race. They remained 2 1/2 games back of the Padres and were passed by the Philadelphia Phillies for second place.

They also dropped 5 1/2 games behind first-place Arizona in the National League West.

Tuesday, the Dodgers will start a six-game homestand against the Padres and Diamondbacks. But first up is a day off today, something welcomed by a bullpen that has logged 26 1/3 innings in 10 days.

Fatigue was a reason Little wanted to stay away from Broxton on Sunday. The manager said that if Broxton hadn’t been tired from pitching in the team’s previous three games, he would have started the game-deciding eighth inning with a 2-1 lead.

Little allowed Brad Penny to pitch into the eighth but pulled him at the first sign of trouble, in this case a leadoff double by Kevin Frandsen.

“It was all in my mind to leave him out there until he got a baserunner,” Little said, adding that Penny was pulled because “he was pitching far too good a game to be in a position to lose right there.”

Penny had given up one run and seven hits in the first seven innings. His 82 pitches were a season low.

Little called on Scott Proctor, who wild-pitched the tying run to third but then struck out Randy Winn. Proctor was immediately replaced by Joe Beimel, but with pinch-runner Eugenio Velez on third, Beimel didn’t attack Barry Bonds, who was one for 15 against him lifetime. Beimel missed the strike zone with his first two pitches to Bonds, then intentionally walked him.

That set the stage for Durham. Broxton threw him three consecutive breaking balls, and the third one, a hanging 0-and-2 pitch, ended up on the other side of the right-field fence.

“I was trying to throw it in the dirt and left it up,” Broxton said. “I just made a mistake, and it cost us.”

Closer Takashi Saito was warming up in the bullpen alongside Broxton and said he had given word that he was ready to enter the game. Afterward, Saito wondered whether his words had made Broxton think he wouldn’t have to pitch and caused him to relax too much.

Wiped out by Durham’s swing were the homers hit by Kent in the second and seventh innings. It was Kent’s first multi-homer game as a Dodger; he last had one in 2004, when he played for the Houston Astros.

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dylan.hernandez@latimes.com