Brown, Dodgers Will Take This Win to the Bank

It seemed silly at the time to the Dodgers and even more so now, because $105 million doesn’t make one perfect.

Kevin Brown has had bad days before, and odds are the new Dodger pitcher will struggle again. His teammates and team officials figure it won’t happen often, though, and history is on their side.

Brown rebounded from his poor opening-day performance, pitching eight impressive innings Saturday to lead the Dodgers to a 2-0 victory over the Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium.

The new staff ace limited the overmatched Rockies to only three singles and won his first game in his second Dodger start, pleasing a crowd of 44,503 during a late-afternoon game.

“I wasn’t very worried,” Manager Davey Johnson said, smiling. “You know what you’re going to get from Brownie.”

Raul Mondesi and Eric Karros continued to power the Dodgers’ fast start, supporting Brown with solo homers--their fourth and first homers, respectively--in the seventh against Colorado starter Darryl Kile (1-1). Those blasts eased the disappointment of Dodger batters, who stranded 15 runners, including leaving the bases loaded in the third, fourth and sixth.

Johnson removed Brown after the eighth because he experienced slight back stiffness, turning the game over to closer Jeff Shaw. Shaw pitched a perfect ninth to earn his third save in as many opportunities, and his second in less than 24 hours.

Brown pitched much better than in his debut in Dodger Blue, when he gave up a career-high three home runs to the Arizona Diamondbacks while disappointing himself and a sellout crowd.

But such is life when you’re the highest-paid player in baseball history.

“That’s the nature of the beast,” Brown said, alluding to being booed vociferously when he was chased after only 5 2/3 lackluster innings Monday in the 8-6, 11-inning victory over the Diamondbacks. “That’s the way fans are when you have a bad game, and that’s their right.

“People are going to think bad things, but I’m not going to let it change my approach. Some days you’re going to have great days, some days you’re going to have bad days.”

Saturday definitely fell under the former.

Brown dazzled from the start and displayed his renowned mettle by pitching out of jams in the fourth and sixth. The combined efforts of Brown and his teammates helped the Dodgers improve to 5-1, matching their best start since 1988.

That edition of the team won the World Series, though the Dodgers aren’t thinking that far ahead yet. The focus of the moment was on Brown’s fine day, and the Dodgers expect to experience many similar moments.

“He threw an excellent game today, and that’s probably going to happen a lot more frequently than what happened opening day,” Karros said. “He threw an awesome game and he made the pitches when he had to. That’s why he’s been in the World Series the last two seasons.”

Brown (1-0) mixed his pitches well, keeping the Rockies off-balance. He worked efficiently, striking out five and walking only two while throwing 91 pitches, 62 for strikes.

His only trouble came in the fourth and sixth.

Thanks in part to a throwing error by Brown, the Rockies had runners on second and third with none out. But Brown struck out Pat Watkins and Dante Bichette, and Vinny Castilla flied out to end the threat.

Colorado leadoff batter Darryl Hamilton reached third with two out in the sixth, but he was stranded when Bichette grounded out. That was about it for the Rockies’ offense.

Brown’s teammates expected a strong effort from the proud pitcher, and he delivered again.

“Fans are going to be fans, and when they see a guy like Kevin Brown, with his intensity, they expect him to throw a no-hitter each time out,” left fielder Gary Sheffield said. “But that’s impossible because those guys have bats out there in their hands.

“The fans just need to realize that Kevin Brown is going to give them a lot to cheer about. He’s going to do a lot of good things for this team.”

They’re counting on it.

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* PIAZZA SIDELINED. Page 8

* JOHNSON STRIKES OUT 15. Page 8