Grissom Is Looking for a Little Daylight

Outfielder Marquis Grissom remains upbeat despite a long slump that has dropped his average to .241.

“You just have to keep playing and trying to hit the ball hard every time,” said Grissom, batting .198 since June 1. “I’m the type of guy who’s going to go up there and keep swinging because that’s my game.”

Grissom was two for four with a run Saturday in a 7-3 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies at Veterans Stadium.

The 12-year veteran’s averages have declined each of the last four months, from .343 in May, to .200 in June, to .196 in July and .192 in August.

And after hitting seven home runs in 67 at-bats in May, Grissom has hit only seven homers in his last 167 at-bats.

So, what’s the problem?

“It’s just a matter of pitch selection,” Manager Jim Tracy said. “He’s expanded his strike zone more than he probably would like to see, or you would like to see. He’s chasing pitches that, even if he hits ‘em, the opportunity to hit ‘em well is not very good.

“A lot of it is the bad breaking ball down in the zone, the bouncing breaking ball up to the plate. He’s just like anybody else, you go through things like that. Hitters get into slumps.”

But Grissom is still the club’s best option in center because Tom Goodwin has been even less productive, batting .236 with a .286 on-base percentage, and the Dodgers are learning about newcomer McKay Christensen.

Tracy believes in Grissom.

“He’s been through these wars and knows what it’s all about this time of year,” Tracy said. “He’ll get himself out of it.”

Kevin Brown is expected to start a throwing program when the team begins a six-game homestand Tuesday.

The right-hander, on the disabled list since July 18 because of a torn muscle in his pitching elbow, hopes to return to the mound later this month, but there are no guarantees.

“The definitive answers, in my mind, will come when he actually gets to the mound, when he gets to the point where he starts to let it go a little bit,” Tracy said. “That’s when we’ll have a much better idea if he’s going throw for us, and when the possibility would be he could throw for us.”

Tracy said that team medical personnel might want Brown to undergo another MRI exam to determine the current degree of the tear.

Brown is 8-4 with a 2.95 earned-run average. The 13-year veteran was pitching well when he suffered the tear that put him on the disabled list for the third time this season.

Players said the staff ace would provide a boost even if he was limited to occasional relief work.

“Getting Brownie back, in any capacity, would definitely be huge,” catcher Paul Lo Duca said. “Whatever he could give us would help.”

Giovanni Carrara has been one of the biggest surprises of the staff.

The versatile right-hander is 2-1 with a 2.88 ERA in 50 innings.

Carrara, effective in two starts this season, has limited opponents to a .226 batting average.

“We’ve talked about a lot of different guys on this club, it has been any number of different guys at different times during the course of this season, but you can’t say enough about the job this man has done,” Tracy said. “This is another guy, much like Paul Lo Duca, who never really had been given much of an opportunity at this level.

“He got it here in spring training, he got it when he [was promoted from triple-A Las Vegas] and he’s responded to the challenge. We’ve used him in a lot of different scenarios, and he’s been a remarkable find for our organization.”

TONIGHT

DODGERS’

TERRY ADAMS

(8-4, 4.74 ERA)

vs.

PHILLIES’

BRANDON DUCKWORTH

(1-0, 4.50 ERA)

Veteran Stadium, 10:30 a.m. PDT

TV--Channel 5

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

* Update--Adams, 6-2 as a starter, pitched seven strong innings Tuesday in a 2-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park. Duckworth, a rookie right-hander, is making his second start.