JUPITER, Fla. -- Considering it could have been the franchise's final spring training game in Florida, the Dodgers went into Tuesday's Grapefruit League contest against the Florida Marlins with modest expectations.
"Everybody came out healthy," bench coach Bob Schaefer said. "And that was our No. 1 goal."
They also came out with a 2-1 win behind Mark Sweeney's two-run seventh-inning homer and some brilliant pitching by Hiroki Kuroda, Takashi Saito and rookie Clayton Kershaw. Kuroda went the first five innings, giving up a run and three hits and retiring 11 in a row at one point before Saito took over and pitched a 1-2-3 sixth.
Both pitchers made such quick work of the Marlins, in fact, they returned to the bullpen to throw more while Kershaw closed out the game, getting three of his nine outs on strikeouts.
It was a brisk goodbye to Florida, lasting only 2 hours 12 minutes. Afterward the Dodgers took a bus the short distance to Palm Beach International Airport for their charter to Arizona, where the team will reunite with Manager Joe Torre and finish spring training in Phoenix.
"It will be good to get back with everybody," said Schaefer, who stayed in Florida with a split squad when Torre took the other half of the team to China last week. "Guys are getting a lot of at-bats, pitching some innings, getting themselves ready for Phase II of spring training.
"Phase II is very important. That's when you really put your team together."
Phase II begins today with the first full-squad workout in eight days. And while Schaefer says he'll miss Florida, he says training in Arizona, even for a week, will help the Dodgers because the close proximity of many of the spring training complexes cuts down on travel time, leaving more time for work.
"It's just a better situation. It's just too many bus rides" in Florida, he said. "You can just do so much more, accomplish so many more things, by having a workout before the game and not being in a bus before a game."
The Dodgers finished Grapefruit League play 8-13.
Injury update
Although Jeff Kent and Nomar Garciaparra remain hurt and unable to play in games, General Manager Ned Colletti said it was too early for the Dodgers to panic and look outside of the organization for infield help. "Not yet," Colletti said.
Kent received a cortisone injection in his ailing right leg Monday and won't run for five or six days. Torre said he hoped Kent would be able to play in a game by this weekend.
