Hoyt’s Shoulder Injury Takes Turn for Better

Acupressure treatment apparently has helped to relieve LaMarr Hoyt’s ailing right shoulder.

Hoyt threw pain-free for 18 minutes in the bullpen Thursday and might even pitch in relief this weekend.

It is likely he will be ready for his first start on April 29, although on Wednesday pitching coach Galen Cisco had feared that Hoyt was coming along too slowly.

“What did it was the acupressure,” Hoyt said Thursday. “It was like I was throwing with a slight kink in my shoulder before, but last Thursday or Friday, they tried this different treatment (acupressure). They fool with some pressure points in my back. The thing has responded unbelievably well.

“I’m really happy. I was beginning to worry for a while. . . . But everything was there today. Velocity, movement, location. I’m ready to go. I can throw four or five innings right now.”

Trainer Dick Dent performed the procedure, in which a needle is passed in and out of the tissues on either side of an injured artery. He had talked with some Japanese trainers about acupressure during spring training and finally tried it.

“It’s amazing how he’s getting his strength back,” Dent said.