Chad Billingsley

Phoenix  - Chad Billingsley will pitch the Dodgers' exhibition season opener on Monday against the Chicago White Sox, Manager Don Mattingly announced Tuesday. Billingsley will be followed in the spring rotation by Ted Lilly, Aaron Harang and Chris Capuano, in that order. Reigning Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw will make his exhibition season debut on March 9 against the Texas Rangers. Mattingly has said Kershaw will pitch on opening day, which will be April 5 in San Diego.

Zack Greinke returned to the Dodgers' rotation this week, recovering from surgery on his left shoulder in five weeks, three ahead of schedule. Hanley Ramirez came back last month from a broken thumb two weeks earlier than expected. But head trainer Sue Falsone has little time to celebrate how cutting-edge procedures and rehabilitation methods accelerated Ramirez's and Greinke's recoveries. The Dodgers are in last place not only in the standings, but also in injury prevention.

PHOENIX - When Zack Greinke visited Los Angeles this week to get his sore right elbow examined, Dodgers physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache prescribed him treatment the team has used for the last five seasons: platelet-rich plasma therapy. Greinke's blood was drawn and filtered to concentrate the platelets, which are cell fragments that promote healing. The platelet-rich plasma was injected into his elbow. Though Greinke's injection was designed to temper inflammation, the Dodgers have used PRP therapy in recent years on a variety of injuries, many of which they have described as more serious than Greinke's.

Josh Beckett has changed. The flamethrower has turned into a finesse pitcher. The cocky kid has become polite, even warm. This would all make for a nice story about a former phenom who is maturing and learning to deal with his age-inflicted limitations. Except for one thing: This 32-year-old version of Beckett has trouble getting hitters out. Beckett has failed to complete six innings in four of his six starts this season, including Wednesday night in the Dodgers' 7-3 loss to the Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium.

Chad Billingsley took four steps forward Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium -- and one massive step back. For the first four innings of the Dodgers' 4-1 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks, Billingsley was perfect. Twelve up, twelve down. Nine first-pitch strikes. Forty-four total pitches. Then the trap door opened, dropping Billingsley into a fifth inning that was as miserable as his first four were brilliant. Charged with four runs and six hits, the 25-year-old All-Star put the Dodgers at a deficit that their offense couldn't make up with Max Scherzer on the mound for the Diamondbacks.

They were supposed to come back in droves, almost storming the gates with glee. Frank McCourt was gone! The boycott had worked! Ding-dong, the merry-oh! Sing it high, sing it low! Official attendance had plummeted a remarkable 17.6% in one year , which was only the surface stuff. Actual attendance is not announced by Major League Baseball, but tickets sold. And true, 2011 turnstile attendance had taken a much more severe blow. Crowds were often half of what was officially announced.

PHOENIX - Chad Billingsley threw seven curveballs in his bullpen session Monday, making him increasingly optimistic that he will be able to make his first scheduled start of the regular season for the Dodgers on April 2. Billingsley refrained from throwing any curveballs in a minor league game last week because of a bruised index finger. “I was happy with them,” Billingsley said of the quality of his curveballs. Manager Don Mattingly said earlier Monday that he would skip Billingsley's first turn in the rotation if the right-hander couldn't throw all of his pitches.

They call it getaway, which is not to be confused with what the too-cool dude hears in the nightclub at 2 a.m., but what teams do on the final day of a road trip. Or mercifully, on the last day of spring camp. The Dodgers had their getaway day Sunday, and did it ever stink like it. They played the Diamondbacks, which of course aren't going anywhere for another week, and fell 6-2. All while managing one hit through eight innings, before finally adding two in the ninth inning. Scrubs and guys without names on the back of the jerseys played most of the game, which must have just delighted Prime Ticket.

If Chad Billingsley and Clayton Kershaw are ready for October, the Dodgers should be too. . . . This is only the fourth time that the Dodgers and Angels have each won as many as 90 games in the same season, but it's the third time it has happened since 2001. . . . A Freeway World Series, of course, would be a first. . . . Fifty years ago next Tuesday, Gil Hodges and the Dodgers clinched their first National League pennant in Los Angeles with a 12-inning victory over the Milwaukee Braves at the Coliseum.

PHOENIX - While most of the Dodgers were given Wednesday off, Chad Billingsley was at the team's spring training complex pitching to minor league hitters in a five-inning simulated game. There isn't much to report, which is good news for the Dodgers, considering Billingsley's 2012 season ended prematurely because of elbow problems. “My arm felt great today,” Billingsley said. “Everything felt good. I had good command of all my pitches.” Billingsley's groin, which has bothered him recently, was also no problem.

Six days removed from an elbow operation that ended his season, Chad Billingsley said on Tuesday that he had no regrets about trying to pitch this year. Billingsley was diagnosed with a partially torn ligament in August, but opted for injections of platelets and rehabilitation instead of surgery. The two starts he made this season essentially delayed the procedure and his recovery by seven or eight months. "If I would have had surgery at the end of August, I still would have missed all of this year," Billingsley said.

NEW YORK — Andre Ethier hadn't seen his splits with men in scoring position. "I feel it's not good," Ethier said. He was right. Entering Thursday, the player who used to be called Captain Clutch was two for 19. But Ethier managed to single when it mattered most in the final game of the Dodgers' six-game trip, delivering a ninth-inning hit to drive in the go-ahead run in a 3-2 victory over the New York Mets. Ethier didn't know why he wasn't doing this earlier, as he couldn't point to anything wrong with his approach with men on base.

NEW YORK - Considering Ted Lilly hadn't pitched in more than 11 months, considering he was recovering from shoulder surgery and considering no one really knew what to expect from him, his start Wednesday marked a minor victory for the Dodgers. Lilly pitched the first five innings of the Dodgers' 10-inning, 7-3 defeat to the New York Mets at Citi Field, holding the home team to a run and six hits. Only a week ago, the 37-year-old left-hander appeared as if he wasn't part of the Dodgers' plans.

NEW YORK - Chad Billingsley will sit out the remainder of this season, as well as part of the next, as he is scheduled to undergo surgery Wednesday for a partially torn ligament in his throwing elbow. The Dodgers expect Billingsley to return to competition in 12 months. "Obviously, we're disappointed, knowing it's not a start, it's the year," Manager Don Mattingly said. BOX SCORE: Dodgers 7, New York Mets 2 Before the Dodgers' 7-2 victory over the New York Mets on Tuesday at Citi Field, the 28-year-old right-hander was examined by team physician Neal ElAttrache in Los Angeles.

BALTIMORE - When Chad Billingsley was put on the 15-day disabled list Sunday because of pain in his throwing elbow, Manager Don Mattingly wondered if the former All-Star's season would end on an operating table. "It's hard not to think about it," Mattingly said. That's because Billingsley considered reconstructive elbow surgery last year, when he missed the final month of the regular season because of a partially torn elbow ligament. But instead of resigning himself to a procedure that would sideline him for the entire 2013 season, Billingsley opted for injections of platelet-rich plasma and rehabilitation.

BALTIMORE - Matt Kemp was smiling and recounting the details of the Dodgers' sweep-preventing 7-4 victory over the Baltimore Orioles when he was asked about Chad Billingsley. "What happened?" Kemp asked. He didn't know that Billingsley had been scratched from his scheduled start Sunday because of pain in his throwing elbow. The third starting pitcher to land on the disabled list in the last nine days, Billingsley didn't rule out the possibility of reconstructive surgery. He is expected to be examined Tuesday in Los Angeles by team physician Neal ElAttrache.

PHOENIX - Chad Billingsley has officially been scratched from the Dodgers' home game against the Oakland Athletics on Tuesday. Billingsley's next turn in the rotation has been pushed back to Saturday, which would line him up to make his first regular-season start April 2 . He will be on the same schedule as projected No. 5 starter Hyun-Jin Ryu for the remainder of the spring, meaning Ryu could make that April 2 start if Billingsley can't....

Pitcher Chad Billingsley was scratched from his scheduled start Sunday against the San Diego Padres due to "elbow pain" in his right throwing arm, Manager Don Mattingly said. Billingsley was scheduled to have an MRI exam Sunday and the Dodgers hope to have the results by Monday. Chris Capuano (9-4) replaced Billingsley in the lineup, and Nathan Eovaldi (1-5) was scheduled to pitch Monday night in the opener of a three-game series with the Philadelphia Phillies at Dodger Stadium.

There were no brush back pitches, no brawls, no outward display of tension. Alas, for the Dodgers , no victory either. There was a disappointing 6-3 loss to the Padres , the Dodgers falling Monday on Jackie Robinson day before a Dodger Stadium sellout crowd of 52,136, as their offense again mostly struggled. In the first meeting between the teams since Padres outfielder Carlos Quentin charged Zack Greinke after being hit with a pitch, fracturing his collarbone and leading to a bench-clearing scrap.

Make no mistake: the Dodgers will one day make the San Diego Padres pay for what Carlos Quentin did to Zack Greinke. This is baseball. It will happen. Manager Don Mattingly hinted as much a couple of days ago. But if only for an evening, the Dodgers weren't thinking about revenge. Not on Monday, not with Jackie Robinson Day being celebrated at Dodger Stadium and news of devastation flooding in from Boston. Against this solemn backdrop, the Dodgers and Padres set aside their books of unwritten rules and played an uneventful game that the visitors from San Diego won, 6-3. "There's more to life than retaliating for something that, when you look at it and the things that Jackie did for us and what he had to go through, really isn't that big of a deal," Kemp said.