Brown Leads Relaxed Dodgers to a Win

Happier days have finally returned to Dodger Stadium. While division races are contested and postseason dreams are pursued elsewhere, the Dodgers, a team going nowhere, seem to be enjoying the journey nonetheless, finally playing in a loose and productive manner.

The 6-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday night was the team’s third win in four games and sixth in its last eight.

The announced crowd of 28,520, though sparse by Dodger standards, was enthusiastic and supportive, except for the ever-present boos when Raul Mondesi came up.

So what has changed?

“I think we’ve finally gotten the gorilla off our back,” Manager Davey Johnson said. “[Now] everybody thinks we are [bleep].”

And with those lowered expectations has come a lower level of tension. The stresses that threatened to tear this club apart seem to have dissipated somewhat. The general manager has been ripped. The manager has been maligned. The right fielder has been fined and silenced. The second baseman has been benched and reborn. The starting pitching has been criticized.

What is there left to say?

Nothing except play ball.

Of course it helps to have a dominating pitcher on the mound as the Dodgers (61-70) did Monday night in Kevin Brown, who turned in another command performance to improve to 15-6.

Brown certainly wasn’t unhittable Monday, giving up nine hits to the Brewers, who lost for the fourth time in five games to drop to 57-73. But Brown was able to pitch out of the few jams he found himself in, beginning with the first inning when Milwaukee loaded the bases with three consecutive singles after two were out. Brown got first baseman Kevin Barker on an easy comebacker to the mound and the tone of the night was set.

Brown did more than just shut down the Brewers with his arm, however.

After Adrian Beltre’s RBI single in the second inning had given Brown a slim 1-0 lead, the Dodger right-hander came up with the bases loaded and one out in the fourth. Brown laid down a well-placed bunt that starting and losing pitcher Bill Pulsipher (3-5) had no time to field cleanly. The best Pulsipher could do was to shovel the ball with his gloved hand to catcher Brian Banks, who was pulled off the plate, allowing the run to score.

When Eric Young hit a grounder to second, Brown ran hard into second to prevent the double play, another run scoring.

Hey, you pay a pitcher $105 million, you should get more than just pitching.

Eric Karros’ two-run homer in the fifth, his 29th, and Gary Sheffield’s RBI single in the seventh gave Brown a comfortable lead.

The only question remaining was whether or not he would get a shutout.

Johnson gave his ace pitcher a chance, leaving him in after the Brewers loaded the bases, with one out in the ninth.

“[Did I want to see him get] a complete game, yeah,” Johnson said, “You don’t like to push, but I had to let him get his shot.”

Pinch-hitter Alex Ochoa hit a ground ball to third. Beltre’s throw got the runner at second, but the relay to first was a blink of the eye too late, the run scoring.

Brown then got Marquis Grissom on a ground ball for his sixth straight win and third complete game.

“It wasn’t an easy night,” said Brown, who threw 126 pitches. “I’m not monitoring my pitches. It wasn’t an easy night by any stretch.”

Unless you compare it to those tension-filled days earlier in the season before everyone realized just how bad this team was going to be.