"They brought me here to get the job done and I failed," Jones says. "They brought Manny here to do what I was supposed to do. He's Manny Ramirez and he's danger -- real dangerous."
Ramirez says he's been getting help from Jones on where to position himself in the outfield, and Jones says everyone is better because Ramirez has become a Dodger.
"I want to do the right things," says Jones, who has three home runs -- all on the road. "As much as anything, I want to hit a home run in Dodger Stadium because it's important to let the crowd know that I'm not giving up.
"I wanted to come here and play for the Dodgers, and still want to help these guys win."
Then he grounded out as a pinch-hitter, which means he has not struck out in his last two appearances, Manny Mania getting credit with the miracle.
PIERRE WAS not in the lineup, so I checked to see if he was bellyaching again. "I've got nothing," Pierre said, which pretty much explains why Torre isn't playing him.
JOHN ELWAY goes back to Granada Hills High tonight for the Harold Pump Foundation gala to honor the memory of his twin sister, Jana, who died a few years back from cancer.
The public is invited to the dinner ( doublepump@aol.com), which will raise money for Northridge Hospital, and to talk to Elway, who is old enough to have a son at Arizona State who might play quarterback against USC down the road.
RICHARD LENSE, a volunteer at Mattel Children's Hospital, has been spending time with Masa, a youngster who is waiting for a heart transplant after making the trip from Japan. Lense thought the kid might get a big boost if given the chance to meet Dodgers reliever Takashi Saito.
The youngster not only met Saito on Wednesday, but Saito took him to the hospital patio and played catch with him -- turning in the Dodgers' best performance of the day.
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T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Simers, go to latimes.com/simers.
