Dodgers Should Have Just Said No to Brown

Opening day, Dodger Stadium’s 40th birthday, what a party.

The candles were in the San Francisco bats.

The singing was in the San Francisco line drives.

In the spirit of the affair--and because I could no longer bear to watch--I closed my eyes and made a wish.

I wished the Dodgers had not started Kevin Brown.

I wished they had listened to their instincts instead of his growl.

I wished they had relied on statistics instead of symbolism.

The Dodgers lost to the Giants, 9-2, not because Barry Bonds hit two homers, or because Livan Hernandez allowed only four hits, or because some of the 53,356 fans created bad karma when chanting, “Giants ... “ during a pregame speech by Peter O’Malley.

The Dodgers lost because they started a guy only seven months removed from major elbow surgery. A guy who had not lasted five full innings in spring training. A guy who just turned 37.

They lost because, around these parts, when Kevin Brown says he is ready to pitch, he pitches.

They lost because the Dodgers still haven’t learned to tell him no.

On Tuesday, the Giants did it for them.

In the second inning, David Bell, Pedro Feliz and Hernandez shouted it with consecutive singles on pitches that barely moved.

Later in the inning, Rich Aurilia yelled it with a single on a 95-mph fastball that didn’t budge.

After which, Bonds screamed it with a home run off a 93-mph fastball that refused to dance.

The final rebuff was delivered in the third inning, when Bell homered into the left-field box seats on a 90-mph fastball that was flat as the faces in the dugout.

By the time Brown left after four innings, his fastball was no longer reaching 90, and overeager Giant batters were getting themselves out.

Four innings, seven earned runs.

From a guy who started the game with a 1.86 earned-run average against the Giants, and a 3.65 ERA on opening day.

This simply doesn’t happen to Kevin Brown.

Unless he’s not yet Kevin Brown.

“To beat him on opening day was big for us,” acknowledged Aurilia.

And even larger for the Dodgers, their anticipated message of strength turned on its head.

Position players can struggle on opening day and nobody cares.

A staff ace struggles and everybody wonders.

If you don’t believe it, check the pulse in Boston, where the Red Sox Nation will be in limbo until Pedro Martinez pitches again.

Kevin Brown will be fine. By the end of this season, he could easily be one of baseball’s top pitchers again.

But right now, he’s not.

Right now, he’s not even one of the best pitchers in the Dodger rotation.

Given the mental hurdles of arm rehabilitation, the last thing anyone in the organization needed was for Brown to step into the middle of a crowded room and fall on his face.

The Dodgers clearly understood this situation as recently as three weeks ago, when Manager Jim Tracy and pitching coach Jim Colborn raised the possibility that Brown might not be ready for opening day, or even the opening week.

Brown refused to talk to reporters for two weeks after the story appeared.

During this time, something happened to convince the Dodgers that he was, in fact, ready.

The Dodgers believe it was strictly pitching.

“He had a side session the other day that was as good as anything we had seen all spring,” Tracy said. “That would indicate you are going in the direction you need to be going ... and not in the direction that would make you question whether he should pitch opening day or not.”

But the gruff Brown rarely lets you question him anyway.

Even if the Dodgers don’t recognize it, the reasons for starting him were probably part pitching, part persona.

Brown wants the ball, no matter when, no matter what.

He wanted the ball last year, even though his elbow was ripped.

He wanted the ball Tuesday, even though another rehabilitation start might have been helpful.

Such a work ethic is admirable. But it can also be foolish.

The Dodgers want so badly to believe in Brown as their inspirational leader that this time they failed to realize the difference.

Said Colborn: “It was the right thing to start him today. He’s our horse. It’s important for him. It’s important for the team.”

Said Brown: “My arm is fine ... and if you feel like you can go, what are you going to do, sit around? Thanks but no thanks? Physically there is no reason I shouldn’t be on the mound.”

Yet once there ...

“I pretty much buried us,” Brown admitted.

He shoveled over a nice ride by the rebuilt top of the order--Dave Roberts scored both runs and Cesar Izturis laid down two great bunts.

He shoveled over the first relief appearance by Eric Gagne, who stranded two Giant runners in the seventh inning with two quick outs.

And talk about shrouding a perfectly good birthday party.

Whatever song was being sung out there Tuesday, it certainly did not end with, “ ... and many more.”

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com.

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