Spring training: Rainy Dodgers-Giants game limits Ted Lilly pitches
PHOENIX — With eight pitchers competing for five spots in the rotation, the Dodgers opened spring training wondering where they would find enough innings to get every potential starter ready for the regular season.
That problem got worse Friday when rain limited Ted Lilly to three batters in an afternoon game with the Giants. The left-hander, who missed his previous start with flu-like symptoms, has thrown just 10 pitches this month and only 22/3 innings this spring.
“Well, Teddy got out there at least,” Dodger Manager Don Mattingly said of Lilly, who threw an extra 25 pitches in the bullpen. “It didn’t really work out. It’s really trying to get these guys innings and get them built up.”
Zack Greinke, the team’s $147-million free-agent acquisition, is also in need of work. He threw a bullpen session under cover in the batting cages Friday, the first time he has thrown off a mound in more than a week. Greinke, who has pitched five innings over two Cactus League appearances, missed a previous bullpen session with forearm tightness, then skipped his scheduled start last Wednesday with illness.
In the nightcap of Friday’s split-squad doubleheader at Camelback Ranch, left-hander Chris Capuano managed to get his full four-inning workout in before rain stopped that game with the Dodgers leading 3-1 in the top of the fifth.
Capuano allowed a run on two hits, striking out three.
On the mend
Matt Kemp struck out in his only at-bat Friday. And even though that was officially stricken from the record when the game was washed out, it’s not as easy to erase the fact Kemp is hitless in 12 at-bats since off-season shoulder surgery.
Mattingly thinks part of the problem is Kemp’s concern he could reinjure the shoulder.
“He has to let it loose,” Mattingly said.
Carl Crawford, the Dodgers’ other injured outfielder, took 50 swings in the batting cage for the second time in as many days, hitting 25 balls off a tee and another 25 soft tosses. Crawford, who has yet to play in a spring training game, took a week off after experiencing nerve irritation in his surgically repaired left arm last month.
Crawford appears unlikely to be ready for opening day April 1.
twitter.com/kbaxter11
Get our high school sports newsletter
Prep Rally is devoted to the SoCal high school sports experience, bringing you scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
