Broxton closing any doubt MLB: In early going, Dodgers closer shows he can handle full-time role.

Byline: Tony Jackson, Staff Writer

At a point when the closer role is unconditionally his for the first time in his career, Jonathan Broxton switched his Dodger Stadium entrance music this year from the old-school Chuck Berry hit "Johnny B. Goode" to the more rocking "Paralyzer" by Finger Eleven.

But while the new song should fire up the fans a little more as Broxton jogs in from the leftfield bullpen, its opening line seems more descriptive of what Dodgers manager JoeTorre sometimes felt with Broxton on the mound last year.

"I hold on so nervously. ..."

So far in 2009, though, Torre has been the picture of serenity whenever Broxton pitches, and Broxton has been the picture of total domination. In three save opportunities, Broxton has faced nine batters and retired them in order, striking out five with only one ball leaving the infield. In four total appearances, he has allowed only one baserunner (a triple by Arizona's Mark Reynolds) and one run (a sacrifice fly by Augie Ojeda that scored Reynolds), and both of those came after he entered the game with a 10-run lead.

It isn't that Broxton wasn't up to the task before. He proved otherwise in the first round of last year's playoffs, when he came on with a two-run lead and promptly blew away the Chicago Cubs' Ryan Theriot, Kosuke Fukudome and Alfonso Soriano in quick order, polishing off a three-game sweep and the Dodgers' first playoff series victory in two decades. But a little more than a week later, he was back out there giving up a moon shot to Philadelphia's Matt Stairs, untying a 5-5 score and pretty much ending the Dodgers' hopes of a World Series berth.

It was a single month, a single postseason, but it also was a microcosm of the mixed bag the Dodgers got the entire second half from Broxton after he was forced into the closer's role by an injury to Takashi Saito. But while he was often shaky, while a couple of games got away and even some of the ones that didn't weren't put away cleanly, Broxton did manage to convert 14 of his 16 regular-season save opportunities.

And while Torre and pitching coach Rick Honeycutt might have been crossing their fingers and holding their breath when they made him their new closer, Broxton's proven ability was still the reason the front office felt no particular urgency to re-sign Saito, who wound up in Boston.

It was a gamble, to be sure. But it wasn't a total crapshoot, either.

"We know what type of arm he has and what type of person he is," Honeycutt said.

"This role is a tough one for anybody. But I think

his experience from last year will help him feel more comfortable and more confident. And obviously, wehave confidence in him orwe wouldn't have put him in that role."

Broxton hears the whispers from the legion of doubters who are still waiting for the next Eric Gagne to arrive at Chavez Ravine. He hasn't forgotten his past failures any more than anyone else has. But not forgetting them isn't the same as dwelling on them, something Broxton says he has learned not to do.

"If I go out there and I'm not on my game, people are going to say things," he said.

They were definitely saying them not long after he returned to spring training from the World Baseball Classic in March. Generally, Cactus League statistics aren't worth the price of the ink used to print them. But upon rejoining the club, Broxton made his first appearance on March 24 against Seattle and promptly got torched for four runs in just two-thirds of an inning, a rally that began with a leadoff walk.

Almost immediately, the questions began anew. Although he gave up a total of one run in four subsequent spring appearances, those question never really went away.

Not until now, anyway.

Broxton has been pegged for years, almost from the moment he arrived in the majors for the first time in 2005, as the Dodgers' eventual closer. Now that his time finally has come, club officials seem bewildered by the widespread doubts.

"I think there are a couple of components of a successful closer," Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti said.

"One is experience, and the other is confidence. Until you have both of those, you're going to teeter from time to time. The more experience he has, I believe, the more confident he will become."

For his part, Broxton says confidence has never been an issue.

"I have had it in me (to be asuccessful closer) all along," he said. "You always have to believe in yourself, or you aren't going to be very successful. To me, there really isn't any difference between the seventh inning, the eighth inning or the ninth. The only thing is when Saito was around, if I got into trouble in the eighth inning, we had a chance to come back from it. But when you're that ninth- inning guy, it's all yours."

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