Nomo’s Solid in a Rotation of Uncertainty

JUPITER, Fla. -- Kevin Brown and Darren Dreifort are returning from major surgery. Kazuhisa Ishii is bouncing back from a traumatic season-ending injury, when his skull was fractured by a line drive in September.

Andy Ashby is hoping a blister problem that marred last September doesn’t return. Odalis Perez is trying to prove the 300-plus innings he threw last year in winter-league ball, spring training and the regular season didn’t sap his arm.

And then there is Hideo Nomo, the only Dodger pitcher without issues, the right-hander you could set a five-day clock to.

Nomo gave up two unearned runs and one hit in four innings of Saturday’s 7-0 exhibition loss to the Florida Marlins, resuming an uneventful spring in which he is expected to emerge as the team’s opening-day starter.

With so much uncertainty surrounding so many starting pitchers, Nomo is a luxury for the Dodgers, a pitcher whose name they can ink into the rotation instead of pencil.

“He’s not one I spend a whole lot of time worrying about,” Dodger Manager Jim Tracy said. “He’s such a professional, his preparation is so unique, and his work ethic is second to none. I’m there for him if he needs me, but I don’t get in his way.”

Nor does the rest of the coaching staff. Nomo participates in spring drills but has considerable input on how his spring-training and regular-season throwing programs are designed.

And who are the Dodgers to argue? Nomo has been on the disabled list only once in his eight-year major league career, when he suffered a strained right hand in 2000. He was the only Dodger to go the entire 2002 season without missing a start.

“He’s the lowest-maintenance pitcher on the team,” pitching coach Jim Colborn said. “I could probably leave his name off the daily schedule and he’d get his work in.”

Nomo was also the most consistent and effective starter last season, going 16-6 with a 3.39 earned-run average and 193 strikeouts in 220 1/3 innings. He seems sharp again this spring, with a 1.00 ERA in nine innings. Of his 50 pitches Saturday, 38 were strikes.

“I just want the same kind of pitching he gave us last year, because he’s a constant, he can be counted on,” Colborn said. “He allows a young guy like Ishii or Perez to have a bad game and not feel like, ‘Oh man, I screwed up everyone’s momentum.’ ”

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The Dodgers managed only two hits, Paul Lo Duca’s infield single and Cesar Izturis’ bunt single, in Saturday’s loss. Ashby relieved Nomo to start the fifth but gave up five earned runs and six hits in 1 2/3 innings, including Andy Fox’s three-run triple in the sixth.

“He was mechanically out of sync, and that happens sometimes in spring training,” Tracy said. “It sends you back to the bullpen for your next throwing session realizing what it is you have to do to iron things out.”

Ashby said the blister that has affected the middle finger of his pitching hand tends to flare up in hot, humid conditions, and it was a steamy 85 degrees in Jupiter on Saturday. But there were apparently no blister problems Saturday.

“The facial expressions, his body language, everything pointed to him just being out of sync,” Tracy said. “He was fighting himself a lot. The ball was up, and there was not a lot of depth to his sinker and breaking ball.”

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First baseman Fred McGriff has not won a Gold Glove award in 16 major league seasons, and he has probably never appeared on ESPN’s web-gem segment, but Tracy said he has no plans to substitute for him in the late innings of close games. “A situation might dictate that I pinch-run for him,” Tracy said, “but to suggest he will be [replaced defensively] later in the game, that would be totally inaccurate.”