Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers
By Jon Weisman
In his two-inning Cactus League debut for the Dodgers, Scott Kazmir hit the highs (two strikeouts, two double-play grounders) and the lows (six hits, two runs) — and predictably found a middle ground in his analysis.
“It is about getting the (work) in, but being a competitor, you want to go out there and be successful,” Kazmir said. “First inning, it just felt like the fastball command wasn’t there. I was drifting a little bit — my delivery wasn’t as consistent as I’d like it to be. That’s just something to work on.”
Kazmir allowed five singles and a double, but minimized the damage with two inning-ending double plays.
“Those were actually (pitches) that I hit my spots, so that worked out,” Kazmir said. “I still felt if I made my pitch with my fastball, I’d be in good shape, but a lot of hits that I gave up were fastballs that I tried to throw in and would leak out over the plate.”
The 32-year-old southpaw threw about a dozen more pitches in the bullpen after leaving the game, to prepare for extending himself to three innings in his next outing next week. He said this was the earliest in three years that he’s gotten into a game.
“Usually it’s been a couple of live BPs and then get out there,” Kazmir said, “so I think this is good to kind of get your feet wet early and work out some things while you have live hitters out there.”
Scott Van Slyke’s two-run home run in the fourth inning helped Kazmir avoid being saddled with an L in his first Dodger exhibition.
oldbrooklynfan
And now to Kazmir’s next start.