Brown Feels Strain in Loss

Those thorny questions that haunted the Dodgers this spring--Did they rush Kevin Brown back from elbow surgery? Did Brown rush himself back? Could the Dodgers contend without Brown if he suffered a setback?--came flooding back Saturday night in Qualcomm Stadium.

Brown, the ace right-hander who has four years and $60 million remaining on his contract and who underwent surgery to repair a torn flexor muscle last Sept. 27, reinjured his elbow in the second inning of the Dodgers’ 6-4 loss to the San Diego Padres and had to come out of the game.

The initial diagnosis by Dr. Greg Schwab, a San Diego physician, was either a strained muscle or the release of scar tissue in the elbow.

After a 2-2 pitch to Tom Lampkin, a high-and-away fastball that registered 93 mph on the stadium’s speed gun, Brown felt what he described as “a burn” on the inside of his right elbow, the same area of his surgery.

Brown jumped off the front of the mound--the same mound where teammate Darren Dreifort blew out his elbow last June 29--and his pitching arm fell limp.

“It scared me to death,” Brown, 37, said. “After going through what I did last year, I was trying hard not to fear the worst. Hopefully ... it’s just some scar tissue that broke loose. As my arm comes around, maybe I put too much strain on it.”

Brown will be re-examined by Schwab today and is expected to be examined by Dr. Frank Jobe, Dodger team physician, on Monday. As of Saturday night, no MRI test had been scheduled.

Dodger trainer Stan Johnston felt he could “rule out a tear” with Saturday night’s examination, “but there may be one way in there that we can’t feel,” he said.

Brown hit 96 mph with a first-inning fastball, the hardest he has thrown this season, and Johnston said that could have caused adhesions inside the elbow to be released. “We’re leaning toward the scar-tissue [problem] because we didn’t find any points [in the elbow] that were tender,” Johnston said. “It doesn’t look like anything real bad.”

General Manager Dan Evans said there was no way of telling Saturday night how serious the injury is.

“I can’t say if it’s likely he’ll go on the disabled list, because we’re not completely done with the diagnosis,” Evans said. “We’re not entirely sure the extent of the situation.... But it doesn’t appear to be anything regarding the [elbow] ligament right now.”

One thing Evans is convinced of: Neither the Dodgers nor Brown rushed the pitcher back. “There’s no second-guessing whatsoever,” Evans said. “ ... He felt fine with his rehabilitation. We were with him the whole way, and we felt good about it. I don’t want to rush to any critique of the situation.”

Brown suffered a severe sprain of the flexor muscle in Pittsburgh last July 15, an injury that sidelined him for six weeks. He returned on Aug. 28 and made five more starts before aggravating the elbow Sept. 22 against Arizona. Brown had surgery a week later.

After a winter of rehabilitation, Brown suffered one setback in spring training, experiencing elbow stiffness after his first spring start. But he refused to let that derail him from starting on opening day, a game he pitched despite being only six months removed from surgery and throwing only 142/3 innings in five spring starts.

Brown was rocked in the season opener, giving up seven runs and nine hits, including two home runs, in a 9-2 loss to San Francisco April 2, but he bounced back in his second start, throwing seven shutout innings and allowing four hits in a 6-4 win over Colorado last Sunday.

Catcher Paul Lo Duca said Brown had his best stuff of the season Saturday night, but Brown struggled with his control, walking two in the first inning and another in the second. On his 46th pitch, that fateful fastball to Lampkin, something gave in the elbow.

“My stomach turned a bit--I had the same feeling I had with Dreifort last year,” Lo Duca said. “He’s a teammate, a friend, and he’s one of the best pitchers in the game, a guy who battled back.... He’s our No. 1 guy. You have to be optimistic, but it would be a big blow for us to lose someone like that.”

If Brown goes on the disabled list, he would be replaced in the rotation by left-hander Omar Daal, who threw two innings of hitless relief Saturday night. The Padres snapped a 4-4 tie in the eighth inning on Deivi Cruz’s two-run double off reliever Paul Quantrill.

The Dodgers tied the score, 4-4, in the top of the seventh on Marquis Grissom’s two-run double, and they threatened in the ninth, putting two on with two out. But San Diego closer Trevor Hoffman struck out Lo Duca on a changeup to preserve the win before 47,893.