DODGERS : Reliever Wilson Takes Stairway to Haven

Left-handed reliever Steve Wilson stayed in shape during the off-season by throwing in the basement of a sporting goods store in Vancouver, Canada.

“There was snow outside on the ground, and we don’t have high school or college baseball programs there, so it was the only place I could go,” Wilson said.

Wilson, who was acquired on waivers from the Chicago Cubs in September of 1991, is the only left-handed pitcher remaining on the Dodger roster, but that doesn’t guarantee his job. He is competing against a group of left-handers invited to camp and has much to prove after struggling last season, during which he gave up 37 runs in 60 games and ended the season with a 2-5 record and a 4.19 earned-run-average. He had four save opportunities and blew all of them.

While with the Dodgers in 1991, Wilson did not give up a run, yielded only one hit and had two saves in 11 games of a September run that finished one game short of a NL West title.

“I was just trying too hard,” Wilson said of last season. “I need to relax. When I do well, I try to do more instead of staying within myself. I thought about it a lot over the winter and know that the number one thing I need to do is to stay consistent.”

Wilson reported to camp 20 pounds lighter and threw batting practice Saturday.

“I saw him pitch on the strings and I liked what I saw,” said Ron Perranoski, the Dodgers’ pitching coach. “He is more relaxed now and is letting go of the ball, rather than forcing it. He worked all winter long on relaxing.”

Pitching update: Perranoski said the good news is that, with the exception of Todd Worrell, there are no injury problems among the pitchers, which is unusual in spring training.

“Usually you come in and somebody is rehabilitating a shoulder or elbow or something, but we don’t have any of that this time,” Perranoski said.

Even Worrell’s condition is not serious, Perranoski said. Worrell is trying to regain strength in his throwing shoulder weakened by tendinitis.

“I don’t consider Worrell a major problem,” Perranoski said. “He thinks he will be all right, I think he will be all right and Pat (Screner, the team’s physical therapist) thinks he will. Todd is not favoring anything when he throws. “

Perranoski said that Worrell’s progress is far ahead of where former closer Jay Howell was at this time last spring, when Howell was trying to rehabilitate from tendinitis in his shoulder and did not pitch until the final week of spring training. “There’s no comparison,” Perranoski said.

Perranoski also said that Ramon Martinez’s mechanics are back to normal.

“Last season we would get Ramon straightened out, and then he would get out of kilter again,” he said. “Last season his fastball would not react the same way. He would be over here and over there. Now, his fastball is moving the same way.

“Ramon learned a lot from last year. He knows what he has to do.”