Dodgers fall to Florida Marlins, 6-5

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With the kind of opening week the Dodgers have had, something else was bound to go wrong.

They’ve had problems with their starting pitching. And their defense. And George Sherrill.

In the team’s 6-5 loss to the Florida Marlins at Sun Field Stadium, trouble reached the Dodgers via an unexpected conduit: Jeff Weaver.

Weaver inherited a one-run lead in the seventh inning and gave up two runs, squandering potential propaganda material provided to the fiscally conservative ball club by Charlie Haeger.

The defeat turned the focus of the post-game analysis from the Dodgers’ intelligent frugality -- Haeger will earn $411,000 this year as their fifth starter -- to how they ended their season-opening six-game trip with a 2-4 record.

Haeger struck out 12 batters in six innings, but his knuckleball moved so much that two of his strikeout victims reached first on a dropped third strike.

Haeger retired the first eight hitters he faced, striking out six.

The Dodgers took a four-run lead in the fourth inning. Marlins centerfielder Cameron Maybin misplayed a groundball single by Ronnie Belliard, allowing Matt Kemp and James Loney to score. Belliard scored on a triple by Reed Johnson, who, in turn, scored on a sacrifice bunt by A.J. Ellis.

Four-run lead in hand, Haeger did what knuckleballers do, which is walk hitters and give up home runs. Maybin and Hanley Ramirez drew walks to start the bottom of the fourth, setting up a three-run homer by Jorge Cantu.

The Dodgers were ahead, 5-4, when Weaver entered the game in the seventh inning. He gave up a hit to Chris Coghlan and walked Ramirez, setting up a game-deciding two-run double down the left field line by Cantu.

-- Dylan Hernandez, reporting from Miami