Dodgers can’t get a streak going

If there’s one thing Dodgers Manager Joe Torre has been consistent about this spring, it’s bemoaning his team’s lack of consistency.

“We need to put something back-to-back here,” he said earlier this week. “That’s the problem right now. We’re not winning enough to get the feeling that we’re coming to the ballpark expecting to win. We’re hoping we’re going to win.”

Thursday the Dodgers came to the ballpark hoping to string together consecutive wins for only the third time this season. But a bit too much Edgar Gonzalez and not enough hitting in clutch situations dashed those hopes as the Arizona Diamondbacks took a 6-4 victory at Dodger Stadium.

A night after pounding unbeaten starter Dan Haren, the Dodgers couldn’t solve the winless Gonzalez, who held them to three runs over 5 1/3 innings. But he got some key help from the Dodgers, who were only two for nine with runners in scoring position, loading the bases with one out in the sixth and not scoring, then hitting into an inning-ending double play with the tying and go-ahead runs on base in the seventh.

“We had plenty of opportunities,” Torre said. “We had the right guys at the plate, we just didn’t deliver. There are a lot of things we have to improve on.”

In fact, about the only fight the Dodgers showed all night came in the top of the ninth when Torre and second baseman Jeff Kent were ejected for arguing a call with umpire Andy Fletcher from an inning earlier.

“I challenged the call and I got thrown out for it,” said Kent, who pulled his foot too early on a force play, according to the umpire. “It’s just a shame.”

That wasted an impressive if -- what else? -- inconsistent performance by right-hander Chad Billingsley, who struck out a career-high 12 while pitching a season-high six innings. But he also gave up a season-high five earned runs and put Arizona in front to stay with a fifth-inning wild pitch that scored Chris Young.

The fifth inning was also Billingsley’s undoing in his last start, when he cruised into the fifth with a 1-0 lead but, three walks and two singles later, left trailing 4-1. However the offense has been consistently inconsistent behind Billingsley, with the Dodgers scoring only five times in his last three starts.

Arizona jumped on the right-hander early, getting two hits and a walk from its first four hitters to take a 1-0 lead on Conor Jackson’s RBI single to left. And although the Dodgers tied it on Kent’s two-out double in the bottom of the inning, and again at 3-3 in the fourth on a James Loney single and a scoring fly from Andre Ethier, Arizona never trailed, taking the lead for good with a pair of runs in the fifth.

On the bright side, the middle of the Dodgers order -- Nomar Garciaparra, Kent and Loney -- went six for 11 with three runs and three RBIs while the 12 strikeouts gave Billingsley 21 in his last 11 innings and 29 in his last 16 innings.

None of that has added up to a win, though. In fact, Billingsley has yet to register a quality start in four tries, going 0-4 with an 8.35 earned-run average.

“A big part of winning in this game is believing you can and the confidence thing,” Torre said. “But until you go out there and prove it to yourself . . . “

Until then, apparently, victories will continue to come one at a time.

“It’s just 22 games,” Kent said. “Let’s not worry about a start, let’s worry about a finish.”

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kevin.baxter@latimes.com