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By Jon Weisman
Andre Ethier, who found a groove at the plate during Spring Training, appears to have avoided serious injury after being hit by a Carlos Rodon pitch in the second inning of the Dodgers’ 2-1 loss to the White Sox today.
X-rays on Ethier’s right elbow were negative, and he is day to day, as Ken Gurnick writes at MLB.com.
Coincidentally, a player who is fighting for an outfield roster spot, Chris Heisey, took over for Ethier and hit his second home run of Spring Training in his next at-bat, off Rodon.
Elsewhere in and around today’s action …
- The Dodgers set a Camelback Ranch attendance record by averaging 9,804 fans per game, for total attendance of 147,066. By comparison, in their last non-Australia Spring Training, the Dodgers drew 127,876 fans in 16 games (7,992 per game).
- Los Angeles led the National League in financial pledges to the Baseball Assistance Team (B.A.T.) during the organization’s 13th annual Spring Training fundraising tour to raise money for members of the baseball family in need, “including former Major League players, managers, coaches, scouts, umpires, athletic trainers, Major & Minor League front office personnel as well as Minor League players, Negro League players, players from the Women’s Professional Baseball League and widows, spouses and children, ages 23 and under.”
- After getting thrown out in seven of his first 14 stolen-base attempts in 2014 — including three in a four-game stretch from June 12-15 — Yasiel Puig didn’t make another steal attempt for more than two months. He was successful on his final four tries last season, and in his first of Cactus League play this year, he was safe as well, thanks to a fancy slide.
- Puig also made the White Sox’ Conor Gillaspie look silly for trying to go from first to third on a single to right in the fourth inning today, throwing him out with ease.
- Joe Wieland allowed two runs in five innings, facing 22 batters. He allowed six singles and three doubles, striking out one and walking none.
- Jose Abreu went 4 for 4 today, making him 10 for 12 against the Dodgers this month. That’s right: 10 for 12. In Cactus League play, Abreu is 27 for 52 (.519).
- Dodger relievers David Aardsma, Juan Nicasio, Yimi Garcia and Sergio Santos each pitched a shutout inning. Garcia struck out all three batters he faced: Alexei Ramirez, Avisail Garcia and Micah Johnson.
- Mark Saxon of ESPN Los Angeles has a rich bit of family history on Santos.
- How Yasmani Grandal and A.J. Ellis are working together is the subject of Dylan Hernandez’s latest piece for the Times. “Much like how Grandal is attempting to learn from Ellis on how to manage a pitching staff, Ellis is trying to pick up Grandal’s pitch-framing techniques — the subtle art of turning borderline pitches into called strikes,” Hernandez writes.
- Sean Dolinar at Fangraphs posted an interactive graphic comparison of MLB pitching staffs, with the Dodgers second behind the Nationals.
