Dodgers Have Winning Colors

Forget blue. The Dodgers’ primary colors Saturday were Brown and Green.

Kevin Brown shut out the Padres on six hits over seven innings and Shawn Green hit a two-run home run -- his fifth homer in eight games -- to lead the Dodgers to a 4-0 victory and keep them 3 1/2 games behind Florida for the National League wild-card playoff berth.

Knowing the Marlins had won and that they have no margin for error if they hope to gain ground, the Dodgers took care of business efficiently before a crowd of 45,576 at Dodger Stadium. Brown (14-8) struck out nine and let only one runner get to third. The only Padre he didn’t stymie was second baseman Mark Loretta, who singled in each of his three at-bats against the Dodger right-hander.

“I just took advantage of what I had,” Brown said. “I got out of a couple of situations.... Sometimes you just have to have a little good luck.”

Tom Martin and Eric Gagne each pitched a scoreless inning to complete the Dodgers’ second consecutive shutout, after Wilson Alvarez’s complete-game effort Friday. The Dodgers have held opponents scoreless for 19 consecutive innings, stretching back to their 2-0 loss at Arizona on Thursday.

“That means two wins for us in situations we’re trying to win every night and the pressure’s on us to do the job every night because the guys in front of us are winning every night,” Brown said. “And that’s not making it easier.”

Gagne, who hadn’t pitched since Tuesday and was undoubtedly eager to get in some work, was not in a save situation.

Green’s homer off Padre starter Jake Peavy (11-11) gave him a league-leading 15 runs batted in during September. Adrian Beltre extended his hitting streak to 11 games, but Jeromy Burnitz extended his hitless streak to 15 at-bats.

Brown threw 22 pitches in the first inning but managed to escape trouble.

Sean Burroughs led off with a single and stole second with Loretta at bat. Burroughs moved to third when Loretta singled to center. Brown got Brian Giles on a called third strike, but Loretta stole second on Phil Nevin’s swinging strikeout. Brown ended the flurry by getting Gary Matthews on a broken-bat liner back to the mound.

“The performance by Kevin Brown was fantastic,” Manager Jim Tracy said, “and I really think that once he got beyond the first inning, that pretty much was all she wrote. The key at-bat was the strikeout of Giles in the first inning. That was a big at-bat in that situation to get us spearheaded in the right direction and get him spearheaded in the right direction.”

Green responded in kind in the bottom of the first. After Dave Roberts led off with a walk and was sacrificed to second by Paul Lo Duca, Green walloped an 0-and-1 pitch deep into the right-field seats for his 17th home run.

“The guys put a couple of runs on the board early and gave me breathing room,” Brown said. “It gives you a chance to find out what’s working. It was huge.”

Green brought the fans to their feet again in the second inning, when he came to bat with the bases loaded and two out and drove a pitch to right, but Mathews had just enough room to grab it on the warning track.

“The at-bats he’s had of late, those are the Shawn Green of 2001 and 2002, big-time,” Tracy said.

The Dodgers padded their lead to 3-0 in the third. Fred McGriff led off with a single to center and went to second on Beltre’s single to center. McGriff tagged and took third on Burnitz’s fly to center and scored on Alex Cora’s sacrifice fly to center.

Lo Duca’s 500th career hit, a single in the fourth inning, drove in the Dodgers’ fourth run. Roberts reached on a fielding error by second baseman Loretta and stole second with Lo Duca at bat. Lo Duca hit the ball up the middle, scoring Roberts.

Brown got help in the sixth inning on a superb defensive play by second baseman Alex Cora. With Loretta on first after a single to right, Giles rapped the ball to the right side, where Cora dived and made a glove-hand flip to Cesar Izturis covering second. The relay got Giles at first.

“That was spectacular,” Brown said of Cora’s play.

Said Cora: “The way to win the wild card is to win games and we’ve got to keep winning.”