Dodgers’ Davis Gets Unkindest Cuts of All : Baseball: After facing Candiotti’s knuckleballs, he must battle Seanez’s fastball in batting practice.

Eric Davis began his first spring training as a Dodger Monday, and the first order of business was a different set of stretching exercises.

He lunged at knuckleballs from Tom Candiotti. He twisted at screaming fastballs from Rudy Seanez.

After 20 minutes in the batting cage, which even included a futile leap away from a knuckleball that hit his hip, Davis was looking for the guy who planned this practical joke.

“I think somebody was trying to set me up, bringing in that nasty knuckleballer, then bringing in the guy who throws the 110-m.p.h. fastball,” Davis said, smiling. “I think they were checking to see if my mentality was strong. They were trying to see if I would say anything negative about the coaches.”

Candiotti, pitching batting practice for the first time, displayed a pitch that has not been seen regularly in Los Angeles since Charlie Hough last played for the Dodgers in 1980.

Not only did he fool hitters such as Davis, Mike Scioscia and Stan Javier, Candiotti openly chuckled about it on the mound.

“If you see Eric Davis take a swing like that and break into an ear-to-ear grin, it’s hard not to smile,” said Candiotti, who acknowledged that “there are times during regular games when I have to turn around on the mound and regain my composure.”

Seanez, touted as the hardest thrower in the American League last year, lived up to that billing. Only six of his 44 pitches were hit out of the infield.

Davis warned that he should not be judged on his first appearance against major league pitching in six months.

“You keep watching, it will get better,” he said.