Dodgers hope Garret Anderson is back on track

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It would be easy to overlook, just one RBI in another game the Dodgers lost.

Still, this was much needed -- by the Dodgers certainly, but by Garret Anderson most definitely.

Anderson was mired in an 0-for-17 slump. His batting average had slipped to .159, and when you’re closing in on age 38, it doesn’t take much for people to wonder if the game has started to pass you by.

So though ultimately insignificant in the outcome of the Dodgers’ 11-3 loss to the Brewers on Wednesday night, the hit Anderson lined into center in the sixth inning was still big for him.

‘Hopefully that gets him started,’ said Manager Joe Torre. ‘That was a nice situation for him. That’s the experience he showed you there. Not trying to do too much, just serving the ball the other way.’

The left-handed Anderson entered as a pinch hitter against right-hander Carlos Villanueva with two outs, runners at first and second and the Dodgers trailing 4-2 in the sixth.

He laced the clean single into left-center to score James Loney from second.

The rally would die after that. The Dodgers never would score again.

But on the same day that the left-handed Doug Mientkiewicz finally signed as a minor-league deal with the Marlins, Anderson came up with a much needed hit and looked like the left-handed pinch-hitter the Dodgers need.

‘When you get that one opportunity, maybe four or five days a week, it takes a long time to get yourself going again,’ Torre said.

‘The one thing is, his mental capacity is certainly going to carry him through. That’s my opinion, anyway. He’s a strong kid, and he’s been down this road before.’

It should be noted, Anderson also got off to a terrible start last year with Atlanta. He hit just .200 (5 for 25) in April, but batted .293 the next four months, before cooling again (.204) in September.

-- Steve Dilbeck