Donnelly Struggles to Get Past Troubles

Reliever Brendan Donnelly pinched his right elbow, squeezing a quarter-inch-size nugget under the skin between his fingers. Oh well, just another bone chip that will probably have to be surgically removed after the season.

This is no big deal for the right-hander, who was one of baseball’s most effective relievers in 2003 despite pitching the final months with four bone chips in his elbow and cartilage damage in his left knee, both of which required postseason surgery.

“The chip is on the outside of the elbow,” said Donnelly, a 2003 All-Star who went 2-2 with a 1.58 earned-run average last season, striking out 79 and walking 24 in 74 innings. “So it’s not bothering me.”

The chip is barely a nuisance compared to the complications stemming from a broken nose and the elbow tendinitis that sidelined Donnelly for the first 2 1/2 months of the season and had the 33-year-old thinking he “might not pitch at all this year or ever again.”

Those doubts, Donnelly said, are gone, but so, it seems, is the dominance of 2003. Donnelly had a 3.26 ERA in 30 1/3 innings after Wednesday night’s game, and he’s hitting his normal 93 mph with his fastball, but that air of invincibility that accompanied him throughout 2003 has been evident only at times this season.

“I have the same attitude on the mound -- I’m fairly angry at all times, and some people say I’m not all there,” said Donnelly, whose violent delivery requires a lot of maintenance. “But I’ve been kind of fighting myself mechanically.

“When I’m right, my fastball is going downhill, and that makes my slider that much better. There are times I’ve had that, but at times I haven’t, because the lower half of my body is going too fast.”

Donnelly went seven straight appearances without giving up a run from Aug. 5 to 21, but he gave up four earned runs and seven hits, including three home runs, in his next five appearances.

Still, he has retired 22 of 29 first batters and stranded 14 of the 18 runners he has inherited.

“This year has been a battle from the get-go with everything that’s happened,” Donnelly said. “I’m still not all the way there yet. But there have been flashes.”

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Left fielder Jose Guillen, who sat out two weekend games in Cleveland because of soreness that caused swelling in his wrists and feet and general fatigue, said Wednesday that the blood tests taken by doctors in Anaheim came back normal. That apparently wasn’t the case in Cleveland.

“The Cleveland doctor said I had inflammation of the liver,” Guillen said. “I was really scared. I was swelling so much and had no power in my shoulders, hands and knees. I couldn’t even walk. I was messed up. I didn’t think I’d be able to play any time soon.”

Several sessions with pitcher Bartolo Colon’s personal trainer helped Guillen return to action Tuesday, and the new test results gave him peace of mind.

“I feel about 90% right now,” Guillen said. “Before, I wasn’t even 30%. But Bartolo’s trainer got to me, all the tests came out fine, and I’m happy.”