Dodgers Avoid a Sweep

Well, it could have been worse.

That was the Dodgers’ rallying cry Wednesday after a poor trip ended with a 6-4 victory over the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field.

Capitalizing on starter Kevin Brown’s strong rebound performance and the work of three relievers, the Dodgers salvaged a victory in the three-game series before 46,836.

“I’ve said this many times about our club and I’m going to say it again: ‘I’ll go to the wall with this bunch,’ ” said Manager Jim Tracy, whose team was 3-6 on the trip. “They’re like a fighter that gets knocked down--and every time they get knocked down they get back up.

“This has been a tough trip for us, we had lost six out of eight games to this point, and we very easily could have looked for one thing to go wrong and say, ‘Hey, it’s just meant to be on this road trip.’ But we didn’t do that. We continued to battle, we got some big hits, took advantage of it, and our closer came in and got four big outs for us.”

Brown (6-2) was effective in 6 1/3 innings, taking a shutout into the seventh before tiring in a 103-pitch effort that followed his worst outing of the season.

“Spectacular is about the best choice of words I can find today,” Tracy said of Brown. “Our guy went out there and just battled his way through the entire afternoon. He got tired, but that happens in this ballpark.”

Brown aggravated a rib-cage injury fielding a ball in the fourth but expects to remain in the regular rotation schedule.

“It’s on my right side . . . the same thing I’ve been dealing with all year,” said Brown, who pitched only four innings May 18 in an 8-0 loss to the New York Mets. “It was real bad on [Juan Pierre’s] bunt play. It was real acute.

“My foot went out from under me. I was just trying to get rid of [the ball] in an awkward position. [Team medical personnel] have looked at it before and done tests, so I just have to do what I can.”

The Rockies chased Brown and scored three runs in the seventh--the last on Mike Fetters’ wild throw--to cut the lead to 4-3.

Fetters struck out Neifi Perez with runners on the corners to escape the jam, and closer Jeff Shaw got the final out in the eighth with runners on first and second in relief of Giovanni Carrara.

The Rockies scored a run on two doubles in the ninth, but second baseman Mark Grudzielanek made a fine play on Larry Walker’s hard grounder to end the game with a runner at third.

Shaw recorded his 14th save in 15 opportunities for the Dodgers, whose shuffled batting order again provided timely hits.

Leadoff batter Paul Lo Duca hit his fourth home run to start the game against Colorado starter Pedro Astacio (4-5). Alex Cora’s two-run double in the seventh staked Brown to the four-run lead.

Grudzielanek had two hits and two runs. And Tom Goodwin, batting second, had two hits, two runs and reached base three times.

“When you go 3-6 [on a trip], it’s always good to get a win on the way home,” said Shaw, leading the National League in saves. “We didn’t have the road trip that we wanted, but we end on a victory going home, going into a six-game home stand. If you look at this road trip, that’s the positive that you can get out of it.”

Shaw said it’s premature to label the Dodgers, although they have the NL West’s top record at home (16-7) and one of the worst (9-15) on the road.

“We haven’t been out [on the road] that much,” he said. “If you say that to us in July, and we’re still struggling on Aug. 1, then you can say they haven’t gotten it done on the road.

“We’ve still got a lot of games on the road to play. I feel we still have time to catch up, record-wise, on the road. Our record at home has been very good so far, and that’s what you need with this race being so tight.”

The Dodgers also need Brown.

He fared well at the majors’ worst pitching park, though he was typically dissatisfied.

“The frustration comes from letting them back in the game,” said Brown, who gave up eight hits and was charged with three runs, two earned. “I had a four-run lead and I couldn’t get it done.”