Brown Has Subpar Outing at Wrong Time for Dodgers

The Dodgers have 21 games remaining and need only five victories to improve on last season’s total.

It could be close.

Apparently running on empty, the Dodgers dropped their fourth consecutive game Friday night in the Colorado Rockies’ 8-5 victory at Coors Field.

The Dodgers wasted another opportunity to reemerge in the National League West and wild-card races before 37,645.

Kevin Brown (12-6) struggled in an ineffective six-inning outing and was outdueled by Colorado left-hander Brian Bohanon.

Bohanon worked seven strong innings, Todd Hollandsworth doubled and scored in his first game against the Dodgers since being traded for Tom Goodwin, and Todd Helton had three singles to raise his average to .386.

They helped the fourth-place Rockies (72-68) move within one-half game of the third-place Dodgers (73-68).

The Rockies took command with three runs in the seventh against reliever Antonio Osuna, staking Bohanon (9-9) to an 8-3 lead. Osuna had not given up an earned run in 9 2/3 innings.

Gary Sheffield established a new Los Angeles franchise record with his 41st home run, one more than Mike Piazza hit in 1997.

And Dave Hansen tied the majors’ single-season mark with his sixth pinch-hit homer, but the Dodgers are getting more bad performances than good these days.

The club General Manager Kevin Malone designed is breaking down near the finish line.

“We’re getting every opportunity to be in this thing [the playoff races], but we just haven’t done anything,” first baseman Eric Karros said. “We just can’t get anything going as a team.

“We definitely have been given an opportunity the last two or three weeks, and we haven’t been able to capitalize. This has been a group effort.

“Although things might get magnified at this time of the year, everyone can do a better job. It isn’t one person or one part of the team. It’s too simplistic to look at one person.”

Brown looked in the mirror Friday.

The right-hander failed to pitch at least seven innings for only the eighth time in 29 starts.

Brown gave up nine hits and five runs--four earned. He walked one and struck out only two.

“It was just a matter of not making enough adjustments quick enough,” said Brown, whose earned-run average rose from 2.62 to 2.72.

The Dodgers noticed.

“It wasn’t one of Brownie’s better ones,” Manager Davey Johnson said. “Brownie usually doesn’t give up home runs over the center-field wall.”

Brown made a costly mistake in the fifth.

He quickly got two outs after Helton led off with his second single, but light-hitting Terry Shumpert hit his sixth homer to right-center on a 2-1 pitch.

The Rockies had a 5-3 lead and the Dodgers were reliving a familiar theme.

“That was a big blow,” Johnson said. “Shumpert got a sinker out over the plate and crushed it.”

Catcher Todd Hundley wasn’t surprised.

“They weren’t biting on the breaking ball, so we had to come with fastballs and splitters,” Hundley said. “They were waiting on them.”

Hundley said the Dodgers are not out of gas.

“We’re not just trying to get the season over with, we’ve got a lot of work [left] to do,” Hundley said.

“We’re playing these teams that want to be spoilers, and they’re doing a good job of it. We just have to turn it up a notch.”