Ishii Exorcises While Pitching

If there were demons, Dodger left-hander Kazuhisa Ishii didn’t merely face them Sunday -- he invited them over for dinner.

The last time Ishii was on the mound in a competitive situation was Sept. 8, 2002, in Dodger Stadium, when a line drive off the bat of Houston’s Brian Hunter hit him in the forehead, fracturing his skull.

Ishii returned to the mound Sunday, the first time he has faced hitters since that gruesome, season-ending incident, and guess who was standing in the batter’s box to lead off the exhibition game in Holman Stadium?

Brian Hunter.

“What are the odds of that?” catcher Paul Lo Duca said.

About the same as Hunter knocking another baseball at Ishii’s head, but on the fourth pitch of the game, it nearly happened. Hunter hit a high chopper up the middle for a single, not close enough to endanger Ishii but close enough to make some Dodgers wonder how he was going to react.

Ishii didn’t flinch. That also was the only hit Ishii gave up in a sharp two-inning, 23-pitch performance in which he struck out one and retired the side in order in the second.

“He didn’t show any fear,” Lo Duca said. “He threw all of his pitches for strikes and went right after guys. That’s big. It’s not easy, but for him to do that is awesome.... People don’t realize how hard it is mentally to get back onto the mound after something like that. I remember taking a bad hop on a ground ball in high school and it took me a month and a half to get my confidence back.”

The Astros whipped the Dodgers, 10-5, scoring nine unearned runs with the help of three Dodger errors, but that hardly dampened the afternoon for the home team.

After Ishii departed, Kevin Brown, who is attempting to rebound from major elbow and back surgery, retired the side in order in the third inning, striking out two, and Darren Dreifort, sidelined for a year and a half because of elbow and knee surgeries, looked good for much of the next two innings, his only bad pitch getting hammered for a two-run homer by Gregg Zaun. It was the first Grapefruit League appearances for both.

“It was a big day with those guys throwing so well,” Lo Duca said. “Brown was awesome, and Dreifort threw really well. The key is neither had any pain. If we have those two guys healthy, it’s really going to help us out. I think [with them] we’d have the best pitching staff in baseball.”

About an hour before the game, Hunter met Ishii outside the Dodger clubhouse for a chat.

“I’m just glad everyone is healed up and he can pitch again,” Hunter said. “I said a lot of prayers for him. As a player, you don’t want to see teammates or opponents get injured, but we can take a valuable lesson from this. All of baseball needs to turn on the lights sooner, because he couldn’t even see that ball.”

Ishii was hit in an afternoon game that was pushed from a 1 p.m. start to 4 p.m. to accommodate the Los Angeles Triathlon. The Dodgers, as a result, no longer will have twilight starts at home late in the season.

Ishii said he was “a little nervous” at the start of Sunday’s exhibition, “but I got better as the game went along,” he said through an interpreter. “There was a lot of emotions, a lot of energy, and sometimes that tends to mess up my form. But I got on track.”

Was he relieved to have the game behind him?

“Yes,” Ishii said. “I think I was able to answer some questions today.”

Dodger pitching coach Jim Colborn can’t understand why Ishii has to answer such questions. When asked if he thought Ishii had cleared a mental hurdle Sunday, Colborn was offended by the question.

“There was never an emotional issue, only the one the press is trying to make,” Colborn said. “I’m tired of dealing with it. I’m not talking about it. It’s never been mentioned by us in spring training. The reason I’m upset is if it becomes an issue in the paper, it could become an issue with him. He’s never given it a second thought.”

Before the game, Manager Jim Tracy said he was concerned Ishii might adopt too much of a defensive posture, concentrating more on covering his position than finishing his pitches.

Afterward, Tracy was convinced Ishii had recovered.

“When Hunter hit that ball up the middle, Kaz not only didn’t back off from it, he tried to field it,” Tracy said.

“So there’s no need to answer any more questions as far as his psychological outlook. I think we’re past that. He finished his pitches, he followed through ... he came out of it fine.

“It’s over and done with, we’re beyond it.”

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The Dodgers renewed the contracts of closer Eric Gagne for $550,000 and utility player Mike Kinkade for $320,000.... Dodger outfielder Daryle Ward, facing the team that traded him over the winter, hit a prodigious two-run homer off Astro right-hander Wade Miller in the first inning. “That had nothing to do with playing against my old team, but it made it better,” Ward said. “They know what they had. They don’t need me to tell them.”