Nomo Elbow Surgery Called Routine by Jobe

After his season had ended, after his last pitch had been thrown, Dodger right-hander Hideo Nomo conceded what others had surmised: He was pitching in pain.

Nomo asked team physician Frank Jobe to examine his right arm, Nomo acknowledging that he had felt stiffness in the elbow area.

Jobe found floating bone chips, which he removed Tuesday in a 90-minute arthroscopic operation that Jobe described as “routine.”

Nomo, 29, won’t be allowed to throw a baseball until December at the earliest, but should, according to Jobe, be ready for spring training. Nomo will undergo a rehabilitation program in his native Japan, where he plans to spend much of the off-season.

There was speculation that Nomo’s problems were caused by a line drive off the bat of the Philadelphia Phillies’ Scott Rolen in July that struck Nomo on the right elbow. Nomo, who had won 10 of 17 decisions up to that point, lost five of his last nine.

Jobe said that the line drive did not not cause Nomo’s condition, which is commonly found in the throwing arms of pitchers, but that the blow might have “stirred it up enough to cause an irritation in the elbow.”

Although the bone chips would not have affected Nomo’s mechanics, they did cause the pain that seemed to change his approach on the mound.

“When he straightened out his arm,” Jobe said, “he felt pain.”