Trouble Right Off the Bat

The top of the new-look Dodger order manufactured a few runs Tuesday, as leadoff batter Dave Roberts and No. 2 hitter Cesar Izturis did many of the little things Manager Jim Tracy said are critical for the offense to click this season.

Problem was, the San Francisco Giants were in mass-production mode, turning Dodger ace Kevin Brown into the king of clubbed during a 9-2 season-opening victory before a sellout crowd of 53,356 at Dodger Stadium.

The Giants rocked Brown for five runs and five hits in the second inning, the capper a three-run, opposite-field home run by Barry Bonds that broke up what appeared to be an entertaining fight in the left-field pavilion.

Bonds, who set a single-season record with 73 home runs last season, later scattered a few fans in the second deck above right field in the seventh, blasting a towering solo shot off reliever Omar Daal to become only the 10th player in Dodger Stadium history to homer into the loge level.

“That guy’s incredible,” Dodger catcher Paul Lo Duca said of Bonds. “If he keeps going like that, he’s going to end up with 250 walks this year. That first home run wasn’t where we wanted to throw the pitch. The second home run wasn’t a bad pitch on our part. He’s just incredible.”

The Bonds bombs highlighted a 12-hit Giant attack that featured an RBI single in the second and a rally-sparking single in the fourth by San Francisco starter Livan Hernandez, who wiped away an ugly spring (35 earned runs in 30 innings) with an eight-inning, four-hit performance in which he retired 14 in a row from the third through seventh innings.

Hernandez and Brown were teammates on the Florida Marlins’ 1997 World Series-champion team, but they were hardly equals Tuesday. Hernandez was poised throughout, locating his pitches on both corners, rarely allowing a hard-hit ball and also avoiding big innings. Trouble was Brown’s business.

He lasted only four innings, giving up seven runs and nine hits, striking out five and walking one. He threw 69 pitches, 46 for strikes, many in prime hitting zones as opposed to the corners or at the knees.

Brown is six months removed from surgery to repair a torn flexor muscle in his elbow, and there have been questions all spring as to whether his rehabilitation was rushed, and whether he was ready to start the season. Brown scoffed at such suggestions.

“If I gave up 27 line drives that were all hit right at somebody, you guys would think I pitched great,” Brown told reporters afterward. “If I feel I can go, what am I going to do, sit around and not pitch? I’ve done everything I can do [to prepare for the season]. There’s no reason why, physically, I shouldn’t be on the mound.”

Manager Jim Tracy said he has “no concerns whatsoever” about Brown’s elbow, and Brown, who entered with an 8-1 career record and 1.86 earned-run average in 12 starts against the Giants, said his elbow “felt fine--no excuses.”

But this was not vintage Kevin Brown on the Dodger Stadium mound Tuesday, and that doesn’t bode well for a rotation that has another starter, Andy Ashby, coming back from the same surgery, and one, Kazuhisa Ishii, whose control problems are becoming a huge concern.

Brown gave up consecutive one-out singles to David Bell, Pedro Feliz and Hernandez for a run in the second, and Rich Aurilia’s run-scoring single made it 2-1. Bonds then tore into a 93-mph fastball, sending it into the seats above the left-field wall for a three-run homer and a 5-1 lead. Bell homered to left in the third for a 6-1 lead, and Bonds’ run-scoring single in the fourth made it 7-2.

“It’s disappointing when you don’t give your team a chance,” Brown said. “I pretty much buried us.”

His teammates were not about to do the same to Brown.

“He told me he wished he had some pain [in his elbow] so he would have an excuse,” Lo Duca said. “His stuff was fine. It just wasn’t in the right spot. He’s too good a competitor to take this into his next outing. I think he’ll be fine.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if he came out next time and threw a one-hitter.”

Pitching coach Jim Colborn wasn’t making any bold predictions, but he is confident better days lie ahead for Brown.

“I don’t see this as any kind of call to doom,” Colborn said. “We will watch him continue to improve as the season goes along.”

Hernandez couldn’t pitch much better, though his day got off to an uncomfortable start. As he warmed up in the right-field bullpen, fans hurled a barrage of profanities and insults at the right-hander, according to pitching coach Dave Righetti.

The Dodgers scored a run in the first when Roberts singled, stole second, took third on Izturis’ bunt and came home on Lo Duca’s groundout. Hernandez walked three in the second but escaped with the help of catcher Benito Santiago, who threw out Adrian Beltre, who was inexplicably trying to steal second despite a 5-1 deficit.

Roberts doubled and scored on Lo Duca’s double-play grounder in the third, but Hernandez was untouchable from that point. Perhaps his best pitch was a 72-mph curve that Beltre bailed out on and took for strike three in the fourth.

“That was a tough warmup; he was getting crushed out there,” Righetti said. “But he held his composure great. I knew he’d do well today. He survived the first-inning jitters and was fine the rest of the way.”

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Opening the Gates

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