Busy stretch gives some Dodgers a chance to make an impression

PEORIA, Ariz. -- With split-squad games scheduled Wednesday and Friday, the Dodgers will play six times in the next four days. And that heavy schedule comes with the team already missing six players to the World Baseball Classic.

But the good news is a number of players who otherwise may have stayed on the bench could receive significant playing time during the busy stretch.

“For the most part it gives us a chance to keep seeing guys that we want to see. And see them in some different spots,” Manager Don Mattingly said.

With regular first baseman Adrian Gonzalez with Mexico’s WBC team, for example, Mattingly will try Jerry Hairston and Juan Uribe at that position. And Alfredo Amezaga will play some at shortstop while Hanley Ramirez is with the Dominican Republic team.

“It gives me a chance to look at guys in different spots,” Mattingly said. “We’re not going to make judgments in three days. But it’s just additional playing time.

“It gives us a longer look. So I think it’s a benefit for some guys.”

One player it won’t benefit is right-hander Gregory Infante, who was reassigned to minor league camp Tuesday. Infante, a 25-year-old nonroster invitee from Venezuela who spent the last seven seasons in the Chicago White Sox organization, appeared in two Cactus League games, giving up five hits and four runs in 1 1/3 innings.

Infante, who appeared in two big-league games with the White Sox in 2010, is the fifth player and second pitcher to be reassigned since Sunday, leaving the Dodgers with 55 players in big-league camp.

“With our starting pitching the way it is, there are going to be games where these guys basically take all the innings,” Mattingly said. “So the extra innings are getting few and far between. And these guys need to get ready.”

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