No doubt there are players everywhere in major league baseball who have been looking forward to the All-Star break.

As a group, it's hard to imagine anyone welcoming it more than the Dodgers pitching staff.

"It comes at a good time, that's for sure," said manager Grady Little.

Los Angeles of Los Angeles lurched into the break with a bullpen-devouring final week that saw just one starter make it past the fifth inning — that would be Derek Lowe, an iron man, relatively speaking for going 613 in Saturday's loss to Florida. Starters pitched just 3313 innings, while relievers pitched 3023, which is not a long-term prescription for the health of the relief corps — or the ballclub, given that Brett Tomko is one of the guys who keeps striding to the mound when the bullpen gate opens. (The bullpen was 2-2 with a save during the week; one of the two losses, inevitably, belonged to Tomko, now 1-7 with a 6.18 ERA.)

The starting problems reflect a rotation without Jason Schmidt for the rest of the year, and missing Randy Wolf on a short-term basis (he missed a scheduled start Sunday because of a shoulder problem). The domino effect has transferred Mark Hendrickson and Chad Billingsley from the relief corps to the rotation. While both have done well in their new roles, they were particularly strong contributors in the pen: Hendrickson had no decisions and a 2.84 ERA in 11 relief appearances; Billingsley was 4-0 with one save and a 3.09 ERA in 23 games. Their absence from the pen was felt this week as the innings kept adding up, particularly since another reliever, Joe Beimel, was hospitalized for two days with an irregular heartbeat.

"We've got 12 pitchers on the staff," said Little, "but if they're working three or four days out of five, sooner or later, they're getting taxed to the point where they might be on the DL. We're trying to avoid that as best we can."

And so, with two relievers now in the rotation, with Beimel gone for a couple of days, and with necessarily careful handling of Chin-hui Tsao — "That guy's just coming off the disabled list," said Little. "We're not particularly anxious to put him back on" — the Dodgers found themselves trying to ride out the final few games for the break (going 3-4, they were only partially successful) and forced to keep sending out Tomko in critical situations, even though he looked more like the Human White Flag of Surrender than a pitcher showing signs of recovering his effectiveness.

Tomko gave up at least one run in each of his last five outings before the break, losing twice while giving up 15 hits and eight earned runs in six innings, and was booed with increasing ardor each time he entered the game.

"He's in a bad spell right now," said Little, "but we look for him to come out of it any time."

And so he keeps waiting for that moment to come?

"What else can you do?" he responded. " You've got to face the situations that are presented to you at the time and try to fix them."

Downplaying the fan reaction to Tomko — "A lot of people can just remember what you've done for me lately" — Little noted that third baseman Wilson Betemit was similarly unproductive early in the season, but has proven to be a valuable bat off the bench, batting .350 with three homers as a pinch hitter.

"In April, he was getting booed off the field," said Little. "Now he's got nine home runs and some of them have been big for us."

OK, so actually he's been pretty awful — the Human White Flag of Surrender, given his 1-7 record and 6.18 ERA.

A scare: In the grand scheme of things, Beimel's week was much rougher than Tomko's. The 29-year-old left-hander spent two days in the hospital with an irregular heartbeat, a problem eventually rectified with a procedure known as cardioversion — the use of an electrical shock to restore normal heart rhythm.

The problem developed when Beimel was throwing prior to Tuesday's game with Atlanta.

"I can't say I was really that scared about it," Beimel said, "just because the doctors told me what it was and made sure I was fine with it. So it was just a little strange, one of those weird little things that happens in your life that you don't expect, and hopefully it was just the one-time case and won't come back again."

It was, Beimel said, the first time he'd been in a hospital since he was born. He's in no hurry to return.

"Any time you're in the hospital, it's not really fun," he said, saying there were two things in particular he didn't enjoy — having to watch two Dodgers games on TV and having to eat hospital food.

"The choices weren't too good," he said. "One night they offered me meatloaf or turkey noodle casserole, so I just had to close my eyes and throw it down."

Doctors performed the cardioversion procedure Thursday, after attempting to correct the problem with medication. By Friday, Beimel said everything was fine and he was pitching in relief against Florida.

"It's kind of weird," he said. "You get shocked one day and you're back to normal the next."

— David Lassen's baseball notebook appears Tuesdays.