Brown’s Game Still Right on Money

Kevin Brown was fielding ground balls during batting practice recently, prompting Dodger General Manager Kevin Malone to joke that Brown should play there and in the outfield too.

Actually, the Dodgers would be fine if their staff ace simply pitched every day.

Most members of the rotation haven’t fulfilled expectations, but Brown continued his strong performance Wednesday night in a 5-2 victory over the Houston Astros at Dodger Stadium.

The right-hander pitched eight impressive innings to help the Dodgers end a three-game losing streak before a crowd of 26,360.

Brown (5-2) was in command throughout, limiting the Astros to four hits in the second game of the three-game series. While Brown was handling Houston, his teammates were providing support offensively and defensively.

That combination helped the Dodgers improve to 21-18. National League Central-leading Houston (24-14) lost for only the second time in its last eight games.

Once again, Brown provided what the Dodgers needed.

“He was pretty good out there, wasn’t he?” Manager Davey Johnson said. “He was challenging people, going right after them, with mostly hard stuff. It was just a real quality game.”

Brown struck out eight and walked two in making his seventh quality start in nine outings this season. Jeff Bagwell gave the Astros their only run while Brown was on the mound, hitting his 12th home run, a solo shot, in the fourth to cut the Dodgers’ lead to 2-1.

Closer Jeff Shaw finished for Brown.

Shaw gave up a leadoff homer to Bagwell, No. 13, on his first pitch in the ninth. That marked the 16th multihomer game of Bagwell’s career and his second this season. Shaw then retired the next three batters.

“I needed to get Shaw some work because I didn’t want him sitting around after that last outing,” Johnson said, alluding to the blown save Shaw suffered in Sunday’s loss to the St. Louis Cardinals. “If he [Brown] had been at about 100 pitches [ending the eighth], I would have let him finish. When he went to 111, I didn’t want him going to 125 to finish.”

Said Brown: “There’s always room for improvement, but I’ll take eight innings every time.”

Brown gave the bullpen a needed break until the ninth--uncommon with the Dodgers these days--because he worked efficiently.

He threw 76 strikes in 111 pitches. Johnson can only hope the rest of his starters learn something from Brown’s fearless approach.

“He went right after people,” Johnson said. “Chan Ho [Park] can do that, [Ismael] Valdes can do that, Carlos [Perez] can do that. Maybe not as consistently as Brownie, but they can definitely do that.”

Second baseman Eric Young and center fielder Devon White played well in returning to the lineup after sitting out recently because of injuries.

Young provided a spark from the start.

The leadoff batter doubled in the first and scored the Dodgers’ first run on a sacrifice fly by Gary Sheffield, appearing to have recovered from the left ankle sprain he suffered Sunday against the Cardinals.

White singled in four at-bats and patrolled center with his typical flair. White missed the previous seven games because of tightness in his right hamstring, but the 13-year veteran was back in form Wednesday.

As was Eric Karros.

The first baseman hasn’t been injured--but he hasn’t been hitting home runs either. Karros began the game without a homer in his previous 76 at-bats, failing to provide the power that Dodger fans have come to expect.

He gave them what they’ve been waiting for in the fourth, hitting a one-out, two-run homer to left against Astro starter Shane Reynolds (6-3). His blast into the Dodger bullpen, his first in 77 at-bats, marked his fifth homer of the season and gave the Dodgers a 4-1 lead.

With Brown working, the Astros were all but done.

Brown had a 1.70 earned-run average in his previous five starts against Houston.