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BASEBALL DAILY REPORT : DeShields Picks Up Where He Left Off

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Second baseman Delino DeShields, who hit .303 in spring training with six doubles, two homers, 13 runs batted in and a team-high seven stolen bases, has started fast.

DeShields had three extra-base hits going into Wednesday night’s game against the Atlanta Braves.

“I just feel a lot better,” DeShields said. “This is the best I’ve felt from a physical standpoint since I’ve been here. I feel like I can be a little bit more consistent now. I’m not going to try to go out there and do it all, I’m just going to try to be as consistent as possible.

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“I feel like I can hit the ball. I feel like I can drive the ball a little bit more. I feel that each day I have a chance to do something, whereas in the past couple years I haven’t really felt like that.

“As an athlete physical and mental health go together and I was struggling with a physical problem [a leg injury last season] and it was affecting my mental health as well. I just didn’t have the confidence I needed mentally.”

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Rookie pitcher Chan Ho Park, who’ll make his second major league start tonight against the Florida Marlins, said he isn’t nervous.

“It don’t feel any pressure,” Park said. “I feel the same as I felt in spring training. But it is special because it’s Dodger Stadium.”

Pitching coach Dave Wallace is confident that Park, who has a 1.50 earned-run average, will pitch well.

“He’s got the potential,” Wallace said of Park, who pitched four scoreless innings in relief of Ramon Martinez last Saturday in Chicago to earn his first major league victory. “Look what he did in Chicago and look what he did against San Diego last year [one run in three innings with five consecutive strikeouts] and look at the kind of spring [1-1, 1.53 ERA] he had.

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“That’s not to say that there aren’t going to be growing pains, there are. There were [growing pains] with [Ismael] Valdes, there was with [Orel] Hershiser and there are growing pains with any young guy that comes up. The only way to get experience is to go out there and go through it.”

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The bullpen has improved its ERA from 4.32 to 3.07 in the last four games, allowing only two runs in the last 12 2/3 innings. . . . Left hander Scott Radinsky, who’s eligible to come off the disabled list Friday, pitched his second rehabilitation game Tuesday night with the San Bernardino Stampede, striking out three batters in 1 2/3 scoreless innings.

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