By Mark Alesia
SportsLine Senior Writer

Out of Brown's shadow, Ashby is now Padres ace

Honor Roll Rankings

When Kevin Brown fled to Los Angeles, counting his millions by tens, Andy Ashby was left behind with a new title for the San Diego Padres.

Ace.

"Ash, he's got the perfect mentality for it," Padres manager Bruce Bochy said. "He doesn't put any extra pressure on himself, just like Kevin didn't. A lot of what he does is set an example. He's taken more of a leadership role, I've noticed, talking to young pitchers between starts."

The example would be enough.

Andy Asbhy has allowed just one run over his last 24 innings.(AP)

Drawing on an improved split-finger pitch that he worked on with former Padres pitching coach Dave Stewart and current pitching coach Dave Smith, Ashby is fourth in the National League with a 2.43 earned-run average. He's 4-1, coming off a no-decision Sunday against the Cubs during which he allowed one run in six innings.

"I can't go out and try to be Kevin Brown, but I can try to take a tougher attitude out there that I didn't have the first four years," Ashby told the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Starting against Brown on April 16, Ashby shut out the Dodgers at home. The fans booed Brown loudly.

"If I said I wasn't excited about it, I'd be lying," Ashby said after the game. "Just seeing Brownie and standing up there in the box against him, it was a little different because he's a great competitor and a good friend."

Ashby, 31, was the Padres' opening day starter in 1996, but finished the season 9-5, helping him earn a reputation as an underachiever. The Phillies and Rockies had already given up on him before he was shipped to San Diego during the 1993 season after going 0-4 and moving to the bullpen in Colorado.

A 12-10 season in 1995 in which he pitched two shutouts and had a 2.94 ERA made the Padres think he could be a front-of-the-rotation pitcher, but his performance didn't follow through as he went 18-16 in 1996 and '97 combined.

The 6-foot-5 right-hander erased the potential label and became an All-Star last season when serving as Brown's understudy. Ashby went 17-9 and could easily have been a 20-game winner if the Padres had scored more than just 12 runs combined in his nine losses. They were 22-2 when they scored three runs or more in his starts.

But Ashby struggled toward the end of the year because of a strained muscle in his buttocks and tendinitis in his hip. In Game 2 of the World Series, he was shelled by the New York Yankees. He didn't make it out of the third inning in a 9-3 loss.

This season didn't start out much better. Ashby allowed six earned runs in one official inning pitched against Colorado in Monterrey, Mexico.

Since then, he's given up four earned runs in 36 innings. That includes a stretch of 19 scoreless innings.

"Last year, up until August, he was one of the best pitchers in the league, and then he developed that tendinitis," Bochy said. "Now he's throwing the way he did at this time last year."

So far, Ashby has been quite a bit better than Brown (2-2, 3.32) and been deserving of the "ace" label. If the Padres are to avoid an extended residence in the NL West cellar, Ashby will have to continue his peak performance through September for the first time.