Using two-dimensional simulations , we compute the torque and rate of work ( power ) on a low-mass gravitational body , with softening length R _ { soft } , embedded in a gaseous disk when its orbit is eccentric and retrograde with respect to the disk . We explore orbital eccentricities e between 0 and 0.6 . We find that the power has its maximum at e \simeq 0.25 ( h / 0.05 ) ^ { 2 / 3 } , where h is the aspect ratio of the disk . We show that the power and the torque converge to the values predicted in the local ( non-resonant ) approximation of the dynamical friction ( DF ) when R _ { soft } tends to zero . For retrograde inspirals with mass ratios \lesssim 5 \times 10 ^ { -4 } embedded in disks with h \geq 0.025 , our simulations suggest that ( i ) the rate of inspiral barely depends on the orbital eccentricity and ( ii ) the local approximation provides the value of this inspiral rate within a factor of 1.5 . The implications of the results for the orbital evolution of extreme mass-ratio inspirals are discussed .