DODGERS NOTEBOOK: BROWN LOOKING GOOD FOR SUNDAY.

Byline: Rich Hammond Staff Writer

Concerned caution turned into relief Wednesday afternoon as Kevin Brown arrived at Dodger Stadium and reported great improvement in his strained left groin.

Barring a setback, Brown will make his scheduled start Sunday against the Angels, even though he had to leave Tuesday night's game in the seventh inning.

``It feels a lot better than it did (Tuesday) night,'' Brown said, ``so with that kind of improvement, I feel pretty good about it.''

Brown said he never has had a serious groin injury in his 17 major-league seasons, so he didn't know exactly what it meant when he felt tightness in the groin, incurred while he ran out a ground ball in the sixth inning.

``Any time you feel something like that, it's not good,'' Brown said. ``I felt something grab, and that's a telltale sign, but it didn't pop. Hopefully we got it ahead of time, before it got bad. ... They didn't want to risk it. It's a balancing act, between it just being stiff and uncomfortable and it being dangerous.''

The injury might cause Brown to skip his normal between-starts throwing session Friday, which isn't unusual or disruptive for a starter. Brown's 10 victories, against one loss, and 1.97 earned-run average both are National League bests.

``What we feel good about is stopping him when we stopped him,'' manager Jim Tracy said, ``and not even allowing him to try it, test it or any of that. As a result of that, he didn't aggravate it, and then to come in (Wednesday) and hear he's feeling as good as he's feeling, obviously it makes us feel good.''

Tracy said he would not ``save'' Wilson Alvarez, who has thrown long relief in both of Andy Ashby's past two starts, for Sunday, in case Brown should have trouble.

``As far as holding back pitchers to protect Kevin ... I don't get the impression that we have to think along those lines,'' Tracy said.

--Just as planned: Darren Dreifort underwent successful reconstructive surgery to repair the medial collateral ligament in his right knee and should be on track to begin pitching in spring training next February.

``We felt the operation went very, very well,'' said team physician Dr. Frank Jobe, who assisted the surgery with Dr. Ralph Gambardella. ``We made it thicker and stronger.''

Jobe said Dreifort's ligament had been ``shredded'' by overuse, not by a particular incident. Jobe called the injury rare for a baseball player, particularly a pitcher, and could not pinpoint the reason Dreifort was susceptible. The doctors strengthened the ligament by placing a cadaver's heel tendon behind Dreifort's existing tendon.

--Not yet: First baseman Fred McGriff missed his fourth consecutive game with a strained right groin and estimated he is 60 percent to 70 percent healthy. McGriff's status remains day to day, and Tracy said there has been no discussion of putting him on the disabled list.

``It's getting better,'' Jobe said. ``It was a lot better (Wednesday afternoon), and I don't expect it to be very much longer.''

McGriff never has been on the disabled list during his 18-year career, but his activity is limited to riding a stationary bike. Mike Kinkade started at first base Wednesday, and Tracy didn't discourage the suggestion that, in McGriff's absence, Kinkade and Daryle Ward would split time at first.

``It makes sense,'' Tracy said. ``At the start of the year, we felt if Brian (Jordan) needed a couple days off, we had a nice complement (with Ward), and now we see the same thing at first base.''

--Odds and ends: Before Wednesday's game, the San Francisco Giants placed outfielder Marvin Benard on the 15-day disabled list with a bruised knee, retroactive to June 16, and recalled Francisco Santos. ... San Francisco first baseman J.T. Snow missed Wednesday's game with a strained left groin.

Rich Hammond, [phone]

rich.hammond(at)dailynews.com

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- Rich Hammond