Tracy Won’t Rush Brown

Had Manager Jim Tracy used an off day Monday to skip Kazuhisa Ishii in the rotation and start Kevin Brown today on his normal four days’ rest, he would have been able to start his best pitcher, Brown, twice on this critical trip -- in Philadelphia today and in Atlanta on Sunday.

But with Brown only two starts into his return from a lower abdominal strain that sent him to the disabled list from July 4-18, Tracy didn’t want to risk aggravating the injury, so Ishii will start today against the Phillies, and Brown will pitch Wednesday with an extra day of rest.

Brown threw eight shutout innings in his last start, a 99-pitch effort in which he gave up three hits and struck out six in a no-decision against Colorado on Thursday. Ishii was rocked for six runs and eight hits in five innings Wednesday night in an 8-3 loss to the Rockies.

“After throwing 100 pitches, I think the extra day will help [Brown] immensely, because you could see the guy getting over the hump Thursday,” Tracy said. “We’re still in somewhat murky waters as far as saying, ‘OK, let’s go ahead and just start riding him.’ I don’t think we should do that just yet.

“If it was September and we were trailing a playoff spot by four games and we could pitch him twice on a trip like this, that’s a completely different story. But at the end of July, knowing that he’s just come off [the DL] and had two starts, I think we’d be treading on some very thin ice to do that.”

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Any hope the Dodgers -- and several clubs, for that matter -- had of Florida dealing third baseman Mike Lowell before the non-waiver trading deadline Thursday has been dashed by the Marlins’ surge into wild-card contention.

General Manager Dan Evans said Monday that “some names are coming up that haven’t come up in the past,” but he’s “just browsing” in a trade market that should heat up considerably in the next few days.

“We’re looking for anything that will improve the club,” said Evans, who is focusing on bench help after acquiring outfielder Jeromy Burnitz at the All-Star break but continues to pursue second basemen Jose Vidro of Montreal and Luis Castillo of Florida. “But the problem is, you don’t often match up with the teams that have the player you really want.”

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The Dodgers have scored three runs in their last four games and once in their last 31 innings, but Evans said good pitching (Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling, Elmer Dessens) had as much to do with the drought as bad hitting, and he didn’t see the weekend series at Arizona as evidence he needs to intensify his already ardent pursuit of offense.

“We clearly need to be a better club offensively,” Evans said. “But we need to get better with the guys we have here, because we can’t hold out hope that we’re going to have some guy come in from another club and rejuvenate our offense. We have to do the job ourselves.”

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ON DECK

Opponent -- Philadelphia Phillies, three games.

Site -- Veterans Stadium, Philadelphia.

TV -- ESPN, Wed.

Radio -- KFWB (980), KWKW (1330).

Records -- Dodgers 54-50, Phillies 57-47.

Record vs. Phillies -- 2-2.

Today, 4 p.m. -- Kazuhisa Ishii (9-4, 3.37) vs. Vicente Padilla (9-8, 3.89).

Wednesday, 4 p.m. -- Kevin Brown (10-5, 2.12) vs. Brett Myers (10-6, 3.65). Thursday, 4 p.m. -- Odalis Perez (6-8, 4.43) vs. Brandon Duckworth (3-5, 5.16).