Brown Shows His Nasty Side to the Padres

The shaky Dodger rotation would be fine if Kevin Brown could pitch every game.

Or at least a few a week.

The all-star right-hander was impressive again Thursday afternoon in a 9-3 victory over the San Diego Padres at Qualcomm Stadium.

Brown (8-2) matched his regular-season career high with 12 strikeouts against one of his former teams before 30,902. He worked eight innings and gave up four hits as the Dodgers won the final two games of the series after dropping the opener.

Brown took command after Phil Nevin’s 18th home run--a two-run shot--staked Padre starter Brian Meadows (7-6) to a 2-0 lead in the first. Brown struck out the side in the fourth and fifth and recorded nine of 10 outs with strikeouts at one point.

Meadows gave up 11 hits and four runs in five innings for the Padres.

Wiki Gonzalez also hit his third homer against Brown in the seventh to cut the Dodgers’ lead to 4-3 lead, but they broke the game open with four runs in the eighth. Onan Masaoka and Matt Herges pitched the final inning for the Dodgers (43-40), who improved to 3-3 on their nine-game trip.

Shawn Green hit his first homer since June 23, Todd Hundley had three hits and homered--No. 17--for the second time in as many games, Adrian Beltre hit his eighth homer and the Dodgers had 14 hits.

Manager Davey Johnson enjoyed the production offensively, but he had even more fun watching Brown.

“That was just Brownie being Brownie,” Johnson said. “It was even a good pitch Nevin hit out--a fastball down and away that he went with.

“That really seemed to irritate Brownie. He was just nasty after that. Just nasty.”

Brown walked only one while throwing 77 strikes in 110 pitches.

“I just made a lot of good pitches for the most part,” said Brown, who struck out 16 in a 1998 playoff game for the Padres against Houston. “I made two bad pitches and those wound up in the seats.

“I felt like I did a pretty good job, but all the runs picked me up after [Nevin’s homer]. Whenever you get a lot of runs like that, from a pitching standpoint, it’s a lot easier to win.”

Green did his part after slumping in June.

He hit his 13th homer against Meadows in the fifth, extending the Dodgers’ lead to 4-2 with the solo blast to right field. He also doubled and cleared the bases in the four-run eighth on an opposite-field shot that the Padres’ official scorer called a three-base error.

“My swing, all of a sudden, it just kind of clicked,” said Green, in a five-for-41 slide entering the game.

“I’ve been trying a lot of different things and nothing worked, but I could feel my swing [returning today].”

Green said his drive into the left-field corner should have been a triple.

“It was a bad call,” said Green, responding to reporters’ questions. “If I was playing left field, I’d be upset to get an error on a call like that.

“When I hit it, I thought it was a double all the way. He [Padre left fielder Al Martin] made a good play just to get to it.”

Said Johnson: “What was the deal with that official scorer?”

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Hershiser Calls It Quits

Orel Hershiser, released by the Dodgers last week, officially retired and remained with the team as a player-personnel consultant.

Page 11

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No Longer Appealing

Perez and Santangelo drop their appeals in Wrigley melee, leaving Sheffield as only one to plead his case. Page 12