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| Thursday, March 20 Yanks' Johnson will be out until next week Associated Press |
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Johnson was hurt when jammed by a pitch in Wednesday's game against Cleveland. He underwent an MRI on Thursday and won't swing a bat until at least Sunday.
His status for the March 31 opener has not been determined.
"We'll have to see,'' Yankees manager Joe Torre said Friday. "He's had plenty of at-bats. If he's all right after four of five days, it shouldn't interfere with him starting the season. But it is a concern.''
Johnson was sidelined earlier this spring with a left wrist injury. He missed the entire 2000 season with an injured right hand.
"I have enough time to get ready,'' Johnson said Friday. "I've got to get it right. Shut it down for a couple days, swing and get into a game. It's feeling a lot better than yesterday.''
Johnson hit .243 with 15 homers and 58 RBI over 129 games his first full major league season last year. He hurt his wrist on Aug. 7, and the injury lingered into spring training.
"The kid has had a tough go for us,'' Torre said. "We just have to go on when he feels well enough to play and see what we see.''
Newly acquired outfielder Bubba Trammell arrived in camp Friday, two days after he was traded by San Diego for Rondell White.
"I'm excited to be here,'' Trammell said. "How can you not be? I hope I just fit in and will do what I can to win ballgames when I get in there.''
Should Johnson not be ready for opening day, Trammell and Todd Zeile could see additional time at DH. Also, 3B Robin Ventura rejoined the team after attending to a personal matter. The Yankees optioned OF Ryan McGuire to Triple-A Columbus. Yanks trying to deal Hitchcock: General manager Brian Cashman is trying to trade pitcher Sterling Hitchcock.
Among seven starters on the Yankees' roster, Hitchcock would be used as a long reliever if he starts the season with New York.
"If I can put him in a position where he can be a starter for somebody else rather than in the pen, it's good for him and us,'' Cashman said Friday. "If we get a chance to do something like that works for everybody, so be it. We're looking to make ourselves better, period.''
Hitchcock would like to remain a starting pitcher.
"That's what I've done my whole life, and it's what I want to continue to do,'' he said Thursday. "I'm looking forward to an opportunity to get out there.''
The left-hander allowed six runs and nine hits over 5 2/3 innings in a minor league game Thursday.
Scouts from Colorado, Florida, Los Angeles, Montreal and Texas were on hand to watch. Cincinnati and Minnesota are among the teams that scouted Hitchcock earlier this spring.
"You never know when you're close or not,'' Cashman said.
"We're just making sure that anything isn't going on that we aren't aware of," manager Carlos Tosca said. "It's the scar tissue acting up. It's nothing major, but we will give him a couple of days to let it settle down." Delgado had minor offseason knee surgery.
Chan Ho Park was moved back to No. 2 in the rotation and will pitch against the Angels on April 1, Rangers manager Buck Showalter said Friday. John Thomson will pitch the third game of the series. The schedule allows Valdes to pitch the Rangers' home opener against Seattle on April 4. He is 0-1 in three starts this spring, but had a strong performance in his last outing for Texas, allowing two hits in five shutout innings against Milwaukee. Valdes pitched for Triple-A Oklahoma on Thursday, giving up four hits and no runs in six innings.
Park is 1-0 with an 11.75 ERA in three spring starts this year, cutting it from 21.21 in his last outing. Park has been hampered by a tender left knee that kept him out of a scheduled start against Arizona's Randy Johnson on March 11.
Schmidt didn't allow a hit until Jose Hernandez led off the fifth with a bloop double down the line in right.
Hernandez scored two pitches later on an error by shortstop Cody Ransom, then Colorado went ahead 3-2 on a groundout by Pablo Ozuna and a double by Chris Stynes.
Schmidt allowed three runs and four hit as the Giants won for the sixth time in seven games.
"It's been just like any other spring," said Schmidt, who has not allowed more than five hits in any spring outing. "I don't think you go in the Hall of Fame for doing that down here."
Soriano gave up Sean Burroughs' two-run single and RBI singles by Xavier Nady and Gary Bennett in the first, when he allowed five hits. Soriano followed with four scoreless innings.
"We've got plenty of time to evaluate some more," manager Bob Melvin said. "But he kept his composure out there, stayed with the plan that he had, and made a couple of adjustments, and that was it for him. It was good to see."
Melvin said Soriano, primarily a fastball pitcher, began throwing more changeups and breaking pitches after the first.
Ken Cloude, J.J. Putz and Julio Mateo also are competing for two bullpen spots. Melvin may not decide until March 30, when the Mariners are scheduled for their final exhibition game.
Brian Lawrence, San Diego's scheduled opening-day starter, allowed five runs and nine hits in six innings.
Closer Kazuhiro Sasaki, who hasn't pitched in a spring game since March 15, has a sore right shoulder, but Melvin isn't worried. "It as much better today," Melvin said. "It's just a little, minor setback in spring. We have some aches and pains. He did throw three bullpens in a row. He threw 100 pitches in a row. That might have something to do with it." Sasaki, who has averaged 39 saves in his three seasons in Seattle, has pitched only three innings this spring.
Stewart, a 24-year-old left-hander, allowed five hits, struck out three and walked none in his fifth outing and second start of the exhibition season.
With right-hander Dan Wright's status uncertain because of an inflamed pitching elbow, Stewart could make the White Sox as a starter.
"I just want to come out and show them that I belong," he said. "If I don't make the team this spring, it's no big deal. I'll go where they send me and keep pitching as hard as I can."
Manager Jerry Manual said he would consider Stewart as a starter if a spot in the rotation becomes available.
"He has us thinking," Manual said. "They had pretty much their 'A' lineup in there. They came out to do something today -- a big crowd, a great atmosphere. And he showed up. He's doing what it takes to stay in a ballgame and to stay in the hunt."
Wright was 14-12 with a 5.18 ERA in 33 starts with the White Sox last year. He threw 30 pitches in a minor league game Thursday and said he felt fine. Stewart allowed one earned run in four innings March 17 against Anaheim. He was 11-7 with a 3.53 in 26 starts with Double-A Birmingham last season and had an 0.81 ERA in nine games -- eight of them starts -- with Peoria of the Arizona Fall League.
Before the game, Penny said plate umpire Jerry Meals told him: "Stick to your game plan and don't be afraid to throw inside."
Penny was suspended for five games for his part in the March 10 brawl, which began when he hit Montreal's Vladimir Guerrero. The Expos' outfielder didn't make the trip for Friday's game.
"My curveball was up a little and that got me in trouble," Penny said. "But I feel fine. The big thing is to get my pitch count and innings up. Last year I left spring training not feeling good. This year I feel fine."
Penny threw 68 pitches.
"Penny showed me something today,'' Marlins manager Jeff Torborg said. "He threw a lot of pitches early but he came back throwing smoke." Florida 3B Mike Lowell (stiff lower back) is to start Saturday for the first time since March 6 on Saturday. The Marlins reassigned RHPs Doug Bochtler and Mike Judd, C Paul Hoover and OF Chris Wakeland to their minor league camp.
Wilson struck out three. The 25-year-old right-hander has allowed just one earned run in 14 innings, a 0.64 ERA. "He's pitched the way he's capable of pitching, changing speeds and staying away from the center of the plate," Royals pitching coach John Cumberland said.
Kansas City is looking at Wilson as a middle and long reliever, but he is versatile enough that he could start if needed.
"It is a very valuable role," Royals manager Tony Pena said. "We have a lot of young starters and maybe they only go four or five innings some days. If I was making out the ballclub today, Wilson is on my ballclub."
Mike Sweeney went 2-for-3 with a walk and has hit safely in 15 of his past 16 games. After failing to get a hit in his first five at-bats in spring training, Sweeney is 24-for-43 (.558) with three doubles, five homers, 13 runs and 14 RBI.
Now that he's passed his latest medical tests -- and shown he can still get batters out -- the Pirates made it official Friday by putting D'Amico into their season-opening rotation.
"I'm extremely happy,'' said D'Amico, who started last season in the Mets' rotation but finished it not pitching at all. "I'm glad they made the decision they did. I think all the big questions have been answered.''
D'Amico has been on the disabled list five times in the last six seasons, and has two elbow and two shoulder operations. So the Pirates asked him to undergo another round of MRI tests on his shoulder and elbow Thursday before making up their minds.
The Pirates were obligated to tell D'Amico by Friday if he would be on their season-opening staff. If not, they were obligated to release him so he could try to catch on with another club.
Once the Pirates made their choice, they shifted former Marlins starter Julian Tavarez and right-hander Salomon Torres to their bullpen and released Rolando Arrojo, the former Devil Rays and Red Sox pitcher.
They also optioned catcher Humberto Cota to Triple-A Nashville so he could play every day, a move that means outfielder-first baseman Craig Wilson will be catcher Jason Kendall's backup when the season starts.
"I'm happy to be here,'' White said. ``I just want to stay healthy and show what I can do.''
White, 31, was traded from the New York Yankees on Wednesday for outfielder Bubba Trammell and pitching prospect Mark Phillips. He leaves a perennial contender and joins a club coming off a last-place finish.
White went 2-for-2 with a walk and a run Friday in San Diego's 7-5 loss to Seattle. But he lost Willie Bloomquist's fly ball in the sun in left field, and it fell for a two-run double.
"He looked good,'' Padres manager Bruce Bochy said. "Sun ball, that's going to happen. He hasn't had a whole lot of time in left field this spring, only three games. But he was moving around good. He looked like the Rondell I knew before, the way he swung the bat.''
White batted only .240 last year with 14 homers and 62 RBI in 126 games. He hurt his ribcage during spring training, tore a tendon in his left middle finger June 6 and struggled the rest of the way. White hit only .216 after the All-Star break.
"I can't make excuses,'' White said. "I wanted to play. If I didn't play, I would have missed six weeks. I've been hurt a lot, so I wanted to suck it up last year.''
Making his longest outing of the spring, Maddux gave up seven hits and four runs in five innings as the Detroit Tigers beat the Atlanta Braves 4-2 Friday night.
"I threw good, but I didn't pitch good,'' Maddux said. "I didn't mix up my pitches very good. Bad pitch selection.''
Brandon Inge drove in two runs for the Tigers with a single in the second, then kept a rally going in the fourth with a walk. He eventually scored on a single by Hiram Bocachica, giving Detroit a 4-1 lead.
Dmitri Young drove in a run in the third with a bloop single. Young finished 3-for-4, and Bocachica was 2-for-5.
In the clubhouse before the game, Maddux had to ask catcher Henry Blanco about most of the players in the Detroit lineup.
"Dmitri Young was the only guy I knew, and I already knew he was a good hitter,'' Maddux said. "He didn't need to remind me.''
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