Brown Shuts Down Padres

Kevin Brown was dominant again Friday night during a 5-1 victory over the San Diego Padres at Dodger Stadium.

Brown (18-8) limited the Padres to one run in eight innings, and provided the go-ahead run in the seventh with a sacrifice fly. He gave up five hits and retired 17 consecutive batters from the first through sixth against his former team.

“He’s just fun to watch,” Manager Davey Johnson said of Brown, who struck out eight and walked one in his 96-pitch outing to lower his earned-run average to 2.92. “I’ve seen him do it over and over, and it never gets old.”

Leading, 2-1, in the eighth, the Dodgers extended their lead on a run-scoring single by Eric Karros and a two-run home run by Devon White. A crowd of 36,366 watched Brown work at Dodger Stadium for the final time this season, increasing the season attendance to 3 million (3,008,101) for the 14th time in franchise history.

Closer Jeff Shaw pitched a scoreless ninth in a non-save situation as the Dodgers (73-81) moved into sole possession of third place in the National League West with their sixth victory in seven games.

Left-hander Sterling Hitchcock (12-13) pitched seven strong innings for the Padres (72-82). Fourth-place San Diego dropped to 8-2 against the Dodgers in the season series.

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White is batting .267 with 13 home runs and 65 runs batted in. Those numbers are right around White’s averages of .262, 15 homers and 60 RBIs in his previous 12-plus seasons.

So although some might consider White a disappointment in the first season of his three-year contract, he’s actually having a typical season statistically for him.

“I don’t pay attention to what people say on the radio and TV shows, or what they write in the newspapers, because I know what I’ve done throughout my career,” the seven-time Gold Glove winner said. “You can’t get carried away with that stuff. You just have to be professional and do your job, and that’s really all that matters.”

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Pitcher Dave Mlicki has thrived since being traded from the Dodgers to the Detroit Tigers on April 16.

Mlicki is having a career year, going 13-12 with a 4.78 earned-run average. The Tigers are considering rewarding Mlicki with a multiyear contract extension in the off-season, and the right-hander appreciates the opportunity Dodger General Manager Kevin Malone provided for him.

“I wasn’t starting there [with the Dodgers] and I probably wasn’t going to if everything worked out as expected, so none of this would have happened unless he [Malone] was willing to let me go someplace else,” Mlicki said by phone. “I didn’t say anything [publicly] about it at the time, and I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, but Kevin knew I wasn’t happy coming out of the bullpen. I really wanted to be with the team, but that’s not really a role I felt comfortable in.

“Kevin could have just kept me there to be insurance for the staff, but he traded me so that I could start. That’s not something that a lot of teams, that a lot of people, would have done. It really surprised me because I thought they would hang on to me for a while. It was a pretty human thing he did for me. It’s not the type of thing you expect baseball teams to do.”

TONIGHT

DODGERS’

ERIC GAGNE

(0-1, 3.18 ERA)

vs.

PADRES’

WOODY WILLIAMS

(10-12, 4.58 ERA)

Dodger Stadium, 7

Radio--KXTA (1150), KWKW (1330)

* Update--Gagne, selected the organization’s minor league pitcher of the year, has been impressive in his late-season audition.

* Tickets--(323) 224-1HIT.