Nomo Becomes an Unlikely Ace

Kevin Brown is done for the season. Notice we didn’t say “Dodger ace Kevin Brown.” He yielded that title to Hideo Nomo, the unlikeliest leader of any pitching staff still contending for the playoffs.

The news that Brown’s back injury won’t allow him to pitch again didn’t even faze the Dodgers. By now they’re so used to going on without him and expect so little from him that they simply went about their business.

“We’ll be OK,” General Manager Dan Evans said. “This is a very tough club.”

Evans added that the team would not be in mourning over Brown’s “departure.”

Departure? That might be wishful thinking.

The real departure of Kevin Brown can’t come soon enough. Problem is, he isn’t going anywhere. There are three more years left on that landmark seven-year, $105-million contract. At $15 million per season, teams would be hesitant to take him even if he were winning 20 games a year. In Brown’s current state, other GMs won’t even return Evans’ phone calls if he wants to talk about trading him.

So get ready for more injuries, more time on the shelf, more agony. Brown will celebrate his 38th birthday before he pitches again, so expect even more breakdowns. This isn’t Nolan Ryan here. He’s this town’s biggest, most expensive waste since the Belmont school project.

It’s been a mismatch from the start. When Brown did what he was supposed to in his first two seasons (winning twice as many games as he lost and passing the 200 strikeout mark), the rest of the team was a mess.

Last year, when the team fought through injuries to the rotation and managed to stay in contention through mid-September, Brown tore a muscle in his elbow and was gone when the Dodgers needed him most.

This year, when the Dodgers found the answers to so many of their preseason questions (thanks to players such as Eric Gagne in the bullpen and Dave Roberts in center field), Tracy found himself searching for a new No. 1 pitcher.

It took a while--with Nomo everything does--but now, “We’ve grown to the point now where we say, ‘We’re counting on this guy,’ ” Tracy said.

Since May 17, when Nomo changed the way he pushes off with his back foot on his delivery, the Dodgers have won 20 of his last 24 starts. He was 12-1 with a 3.08 earned-run average in the 23 starts before Monday night. On Monday, he was the winning pitcher in the Dodgers’ 7-6 victory over the San Francisco Giants that moved them into a tie for the NL wild-card playoff spot.

The guy’s lucky to still have feeling in his right arm after throwing 132 pitches in his last outing before Monday.

But as pitching coach Jim Colborn said, “He seems to do better when he throws more.”

Nomo had already thrown 54 pitches and trailed, 3-0, when Colborn went to the mound in the third inning Monday. Rich Aurilia had homered to lead off the inning, Jeff Kent was on first with a single and Barry Bonds stood at the plate. What followed was a historic moment for Bonds--but only because he walked for a record-breaking 178th time this season. The rest of the accomplishments in the inning belonged to Nomo: he drew a forceout at second from a grounder by Benito Santiago, a foul out from Tom Goodwin and got J.T. Snow to tap back to the mound to keep the game within reach.

Brian Jordan put the Dodgers ahead in the bottom of the inning with a grand slam.

When Nomo left after the sixth inning, he had a 6-3 lead and received handshakes all around.

It’s not like the Nomomania days of 1995, when he was 13-6 with a 2.54 ERA and 236 strikeouts to win the National League rookie of the year award.

That all faded away by 1998, when was 2-7 with a 5.05 ERA before the Dodgers traded him to the New York Mets for Dave Mlicki and Greg McMichael.

He was a .500 pitcher for Milwaukee and Detroit in 1999 and 2000 before regaining some of his old form with the Boston Red Sox in a 2001 season that included a no-hitter and 220 strikeouts.

When Evans was still with the Chicago White Sox and watched Nomo pitch against his club he was impressed with his toughness. This winter he thought the Dodgers could use that kind of player, so he signed him as a free agent.

But the Dodgers didn’t bring him in to be their ace.

“No ... “ Tracy said. “We felt like we had a very good guy that was going to take up some innings for us.”

Tracy envisioned Nomo as the third or fourth starter.

Instead, “He’s been the ace of this staff and then some.”

Said Colborn: “It could be that management was impatient with him. When he isn’t doing well, you have to have faith in him. You have to. If you do, and give him responsibility, he’ll reward you, because he’ll handle responsibility very well.”

Monday night was a classic example. Tracy can pull some hasty moves--bringing in Gagne with one out in the eighth--but he sat tight and waited out Nomo when he looked shaky in the first three innings. He gave up two home runs, a double, three walks and a single, but found his way out of it with minimal damage and kept his team in the game.

Then he didn’t let the momentum slip away after Jordan’s grand slam.

He did what he usually does, what an ace is expected to do: he put the Dodgers in position to win. Maybe he doesn’t shut down opponents the way Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez do, but his three earned runs on Monday were the most he has given up in his last seven starts.

“With what he’s accomplished this year, it’s impossible for him to disappoint you,” Tracy said.

No, the pitcher who disappoints you has a locker on the other side of the clubhouse, and he won’t be disappointing you any more this season.

J.A. Adande can be reached at: j.a.adande@latimes.com