Brown Continues Mastery of Giants

Kevin Brown has no idea why he has dominated the San Francisco Giants, and what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.

Brown kept up his mastery of the Giants with 8 2/3 impressive innings, leading the San Diego Padres past San Francisco, 5-1, Sunday for their 12th victory in 13 games.

“I guess when you’re having success against a team, you don’t really care why as long as it continues,” Brown said. “When you struggle against somebody is when you go looking for answers. It’s blessed ignorance, I guess.”

Brown (8-3) is 6-0 with a 0.58 earned-run average in seven regular-season starts against the Giants. He acknowledged that he felt some pressure to extend his run of success, but said he feels that way every time out.

“You want to win every time you walk out there,” said Brown, who gave up seven hits, struck out nine and walked one. “All I’m trying to do against these guys or anyone else is keep the job in focus and don’t get carried away with the peripheral stuff.”

Rebounding from Saturday’s 5-2 loss that snapped their club-record tying 11-game winning streak, the Padres got two run-scoring singles from Carlo Hernandez in sending the Giants to their eighth loss in 11 games. Six of those of defeats have come against San Diego.

Tony Gwynn, who was hitless in 14 at-bats had three hits and drove in a run. Steve Finley hit a run-scoring triple as the Padres stretched their lead in the NL West to 5 1/2 games over San Francisco.

“[Brown] was in control,” Gwynn said. “For whatever reason, this is a team that doesn’t handle him well and we were able to get him some runs early.”

Brown pitched a four-hit shutout on April 15 in his first appearance at San Francisco since pitching a no-hitter against the Giants while a member of the Florida Marlins on June 10, 1997.

“He wasn’t as sharp against us as he has been in the past but he was sharp when he needed to be,” San Francisco Manager Dusty Baker said.

San Francisco’s Brent Mayne, who had two hits off Brown, was one of the few Giant batters to have any success against him.

“I just see the ball and hit a pitch that’s up a bit, not when it was a vicious sinker,” Mayne said. “With him, it’s very difficult to get a good view of the ball. He works all the angles.

“They’re a better team right now, because they’re healthy,” added Mayne, referring to the continued absence of injured second baseman Jeff Kent and first baseman J.T. Snow, who was at his mother’s funeral this weekend. “We’ve got to get the engine going again. There’s a long way to go.”

Trevor Hoffman closed for his 22nd save in 22 chances. He gave up a single that loaded the bases, then struck out Rich Aurilia to end the game.