Brown Being Evaluated After Hospital Release

Dodger pitcher Kevin Brown was released from Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood on Friday, but doctors have not decided whether he will need surgery to repair a herniated disk in his lower back.

General Manager Dan Evans spoke with Brown on Friday night and said the pitcher is feeling better, but he’s not pain free. If Brown, on the disabled list because of inflammation in his surgically repaired right elbow, makes progress in the next few days, he will likely begin physical therapy at Dodger Stadium next week.

“Is it therapy? Is it surgery? We’re not going to jump to any conclusions,” Evans said. “They’re going to be real methodical in trying to determine where he is.”

Brown, who is under the care of Dr. Frank Jobe, Dodger team physician, and Dr. William Dillin, a spinal specialist, underwent extensive tests Thursday night and Friday morning to determine a course of treatment.

It appears the Dodgers will opt for a rehabilitation program designed to strengthen the lower back and reduce or shrink the bulging disk with medication before considering surgery, which could sideline Brown for the rest of the season.

There was some good news on the Brown injury front Friday: The fluid in the back of his elbow is gone.

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Dominican pitcher Jonathan Corporan’s second application for a visa in order to enter the U.S. and begin his minor league career with the Dodgers was denied by the U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo on Friday because of insufficient paperwork.

The Dodgers signed Corporan, a 6-foot-2 right-hander with a 93-mph fastball, to a $930,000 bonus in early April, but the deal has been put on hold--and could be voided--because of questions surrounding Corporan’s age.

Jeff Schugel, the Dodgers’ director of international scouting, will travel to the Dominican Republic on Sunday in an effort to clear up the matter.

TODAY

DODGERS’

KAZUHISA ISHII

(9-1, 2.91 ERA)

vs.

ORIOLES’

JASON JOHNSON

(1-3, 5.48 ERA)

Camden Yards, Baltimore, 4 p.m.

TV--Channel 13. Radio--KXTA (1150), KWKW (1330).

Update--Ishii will attempt to become the National League’s third 10-game winner.