Game Against Expos Has a Far East Flavor
The Canadian and U.S. national anthems were played before Tuesday’s exhibition game between the Dodgers and Montreal Expos in Holman Stadium. They could have played the Japanese national anthem too.
Three of the dozen Japanese players in the major leagues pitched during a 4-4, 10-inning tie, Hideo Nomo and Kazuhisa Ishii for the Dodgers and Tomo Ohka for the Expos.
Nomo gave up one run and two hits in four innings and was extremely efficient, throwing only 39 pitches. Ishii wasn’t as sharp as he was in his exhibition debut against Atlanta last Friday.
The left-hander struggled to control his breaking ball and find his rhythm in a three-inning, one-run, four-hit stint.
Ohka, a right-hander, threw four shutout innings.
“Ohka looked great, didn’t he?” Dodger pitching Coach Jim Colborn said. “He kind of trumped our Japanese cards a little.”
Nomo may not be the ace he was as a Dodger rookie in 1995, but Colborn will take the hand Nomo dealt Tuesday any time. Nomo threw first-pitch strikes to eight of 14 batters and induced 10 ground-ball outs. Of his 39 pitches, 24 were strikes.
“That’s been his goal this spring, get ahead of the hitters and keep the ball down,” Colborn said. “It’s very pleasing when you see all those ground-ball outs and a low pitch count. I had the impression he was a deep-count pitcher, and that’s how he got his [American League-leading 220] strikeouts last year, but that hasn’t been the case this spring.”
Ishii had trouble with his nerves, and his control suffered. One of his warm-up pitches sailed over catcher Paul LoDuca’s mitt and hit a nearby photographer in the side. Although Ishii struck out Orlando Cabrera looking at a sharp slider to end the sixth, many of his breaking balls missed the strike zone.
“Being my first year here, I felt a little excited, I had a lot of energy,” Ishii said through an interpreter. “I wanted to shut down guys quickly, but I know I can’t do that every time. Each time out, I’m learning to pitch at my own pace, to find my rhythm. LoDuca helps because he knows my form and can tell me what needs to be corrected.”
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Marquis Grissom hasn’t started an exhibition in center field and has played only five innings there, but Manager Jim Tracy said that is no indication Grissom has fallen behind McKay Christensen, Dave Roberts and Tom Goodwin.
On the contrary, Tracy has been impressed with Grissom’s offensive approach. Grissom singled in two at-bats Tuesday and is batting .381 (eight for 21) with a double, triple and two runs batted in. “I’ve seen Marquis play center field since 1994, and I know how he plays,” Tracy said. “He’s been too good out there for too many years for me to worry about how many innings I need to play him in center field.”
If Grissom wins the center-field job, it presents an interesting question: Who bats leadoff? Tracy said LoDuca, Mark Grudzielanek and young shortstop Cesar Izturis would be considered at some point.
“But I’m certainly not going to put Izturis in a position to where we’re asking him to take on more of a load at age 22 in the early part of the season,” Tracy said. “I think that’s counterproductive to the development of a young player and I won’t do that.”
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Grudzielanek, slowed because of a sore right hamstring, started his first exhibition Tuesday, grounding out in his two at-bats. He ran about three-quarter speed to first but looked good moving laterally in the field. “They want me to ease into it for a while,” Grudzielanek said. “This was a positive day. I didn’t go backward at all. I’ll run hard [today] and come back and play Thursday.” ... The Dodgers made their first cuts, sending pitchers Victor Alvarez, Steve Colyer, Carlos Garcia, Lindsay Gulin, Craig House, Danny Mota, Ricardo Rodriguez and Rafael Roque, catcher Jose Diaz and outfielders Luke Allen and Chin-Feng Chen to minor league camp.
