Perez Calls Past Gripes a Mistake

On a night when Odalis Perez had plenty of reasons to gripe about the Dodger offense, he didn’t -- and acknowledged that he had erred in doing so last season.

The Dodger left-hander, who once criticized his teammates’ inability to provide adequate run support for baseball’s best pitching staff, apologized for his past comments Friday after a 2-0 loss to the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field in which he pitched seven strong innings.

“I would say I made a mistake last year, and that won’t happen to me anymore,” said Perez, who allowed only one run Friday on Chipper Jones’ seventh-inning homer. “When I say that, I wasn’t trying to point fingers to nobody, but people took it personal.

“I’m too smart to go back to the same thing last year. That’s not the type of person I am. I’m a very nice person.”

Perez (2-3) said he realized his teammates were trying their hardest despite being shut out over the last 20 innings.

“Every team goes through that,” he said. “It just happens. Those guys tried. What else can we do? This is a good team. We just need to be patient and see when things are going to go our way.”

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Dave Roberts will be evaluated this morning after running around the bases at full speed Friday for the first time since straining his right hamstring May 4, though Manager Jim Tracy said the left fielder would not play today against the Braves.

Tracy said he would keep seven pitchers in the bullpen, meaning that second baseman Joe Thurston is the most likely candidate to be optioned to triple-A Las Vegas once Roberts is activated off the disabled list.

Keeping the bullpen stocked would provide insurance against continued short outings by starters and prevent such key relievers as Guillermo Mota and Tom Martin from having to pitch in blowout situations, Tracy said.

“You don’t want to feel like those type of innings ended up leading to fatigue in July or August when you had an opportunity to use someone else,” Tracy said. “Right now it’s very safe to say that a seventh pitcher is much more valuable to us than a sixth position player on the bench.”

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Reliever Paul Shuey threw off a mound for the first time since suffering a partially torn tendon in his right thumb near the end of spring training.

The right-hander, also recovering from off-season surgery on his right hip, threw a fastball, changeup and split-fingered fastball but refrained from throwing a curveball during the 30-pitch session.

“The encouraging thing about what I heard was that the length of his stride was noticeably improved as far as his hip is concerned from what we were seeing in spring training,” Tracy said. “That is a huge piece of encouraging news.”

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While reserve outfielder Jayson Werth continues to rehabilitate a strained abdominal muscle with Las Vegas, Jason Frasor, the pitching prospect the Dodgers traded for Werth, is quickly making a name for himself with the Toronto Blue Jays. Frasor has given up two earned runs in 18 innings for a 1.00 earned-run average since being promoted from triple-A Syracuse last month and could assume the closer’s role if the Blue Jays’ other options continue to falter.... Tracy confirmed that Hideo Nomo would miss his next start because of a broken fingernail, but his status for his following start, May 29 against the Arizona Diamondbacks, remained unknown. Kazuhisa Ishii will start Tuesday against the Milwaukee Brewers on normal rest because of the off day Monday.