Hong Chih Kuo

Hong-Chih Kuo is scheduled to undergo his fifth elbow operation Friday, but his agent said he intends to pitch next season — even if it's not for the Dodgers. "There's no thought of retirement," Alan Chang said. "He's fully committed and highly motivated to do what it takes. " In the final month of the regular season, Kuo sounded uncertain about his plans for 2012, telling The Times he wanted to pitch but telling mlb.com he might want to run a restaurant in his native Taiwan instead.

PEORIA, Ariz. — As a minor leaguer, Javy Guerra was used to watching opening-day ceremonies on television. In a little more than a week, he'll be part of one. "I don't think I've ever been more excited for the start of a season," Guerra said. Guerra, 26, is the Dodgers' closer. Around this time last year, he was on his way to double-A Chattanooga. He made his major league debut in mid-April. Since that promotion, Guerra's life has drastically changed. He saved 21 games last season and there were demands for his time in the off-season.

It doesn't look good for  Hong-Chih Kuo, who for one brief season was about as dominant a relief pitcher as can be imagined. But his comeback from a horrendous 2011 season with the Dodgers may have been dealt a sad and lethal blow Monday when he was released by the Seattle Mariners. It's hard to ever write off the gutsy Kuo, who was trying to come back from his fifth elbow operation and second bout of the yips. Still, he's 30 and has gone through so very much, you have to wonder if this is not finally the end. After his completely dominant 2010 season when the left-hander was elected to the All-Star team and his 1.20 earned-run average was the lowest for a reliever in team history, nothing could go right for him last year.

Andre Ethier has been the best part of the Dodgers this spring. It's not that he's having a nice spring - he's having a great one - but that more than any other player, they need ol' Jekyll and Hyde to have a strong season . Any chance the Dodgers have of rising up from a club that was barely above .500 last season to a contender in this one pretty much starts with Ethier returning to his line-drive, slugging self. Since there was no significant offseason addition to the lineup, improvement rests with improved play by Juan Uribe, James Loney and Ethier.

It wasn't the return Hong-Chih Kuo or the Dodgers had in mind. After being reinstated from the 15-day disabled list Sunday morning, the hard-throwing reliever started the ninth inning of Sunday's game, with the San Diego Padres leading the Dodgers, 3-0. But the left-hander never got on track. After 25 pitches, Kuo was charged with four earned runs, two hits, one walk and one hit batter in one-third of an inning, against the worst-hitting team in baseball. The bases were loaded with one out when Dodgers Manager Don Mattlingly lifted him. "I'm not perfect," said Kuo, an all-star last year who said before the game that it was good to be back after a lower back strain put him on the disabled list, and now he feels "100%.

The Dodgers were so concerned about Hong-Chih Kuo last week that they told Ramon Troncoso he would be recalled from triple-A Albuquerque. They changed their minds, for a few days anyway. But, after Kuo struggled to loosen up on Friday, the Dodgers put him on the disabled list on Saturday and promoted Troncoso to replace him. The Dodgers said Kuo had a lower back strain, a relatively benign diagnosis for a pitcher who has had four elbow operations. Juan Uribe, off to a slow start, says he's not pressing "The good part is that it isn't the elbow or the shoulder," Manager Don Mattingly said.

The Dodgers are on the verge of the unthinkable. They might sweep someone. They might win four consecutive games. The Dodgers moved to within a victory of the two modest but unprecedented milestones Tuesday night, as they beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-1, at Dodger Stadium behind a two-run home run by Andre Ethier and a perfect eighth inning by Hong-Chih Kuo. "I'm excited about winning three in a row," Manager Don Mattingly said....

On the night Hong-Chih Kuo was named the Dodgers' new closer, he told Manager Joe Torre he was available to pitch. Torre's response: Thanks, but no thanks. "He volunteered last night, but we weren't going to go there," Torre said. Kuo, who has had four elbow operations, had pitched Wednesday and Thursday. Pitching Friday was out of the question. Figuring out how often to use Kuo in the ninth inning will be part of the challenge Torre will face as he waits for All-Star Jonathan Broxton to reclaim the role.

Reporting from San Francisco — Hong-Chih Kuo turned his wrist to make the tattoo on the inside of his right forearm visible. The script was hard to make out, but Kuo explained the significance of the words, which were told to him by a late mentor. "For me to believe in myself," Kuo said. Kuo's self-belief continues to be tested. Sidelined earlier this season for more than a month because of an anxiety disorder, the former All-Star reliever is still trying to find himself.

Hong-Chih Kuo said he wasn't sure whether he would make it back. But nearly three months removed from the night the pain in his troublesome elbow caused him to lob a couple of warmup pitches from the bullpen to the infield at Dodger Stadium, the left-handed setup man was activated from the 60-day disabled list Monday and once again was on the active major league roster. Kuo pitched a perfect eighth inning in the Dodgers' 6-1 loss to the St.

The Dodgers are expanding their Spanish-language cable TV broadcasts this season, upping the telecasts from 30 to 50 games in 2012. As part of an effort by Fox to increase its Spanish sports broadcasts throughout the Los Angeles area, and nationally, games will be on Prime Ticket and carried by Time Warner, Cox and Bright House cable companies. Fox is still negotiating with other providers. The Dodgers have hired Jaime Jarrin's son , Jorge Jarrin, and long-time coach Manny Mota as broadcasters for their Spanish-language telecasts.

It doesn't look good for  Hong-Chih Kuo, who for one brief season was about as dominant a relief pitcher as can be imagined. But his comeback from a horrendous 2011 season with the Dodgers may have been dealt a sad and lethal blow Monday when he was released by the Seattle Mariners. It's hard to ever write off the gutsy Kuo, who was trying to come back from his fifth elbow operation and second bout of the yips. Still, he's 30 and has gone through so very much, you have to wonder if this is not finally the end. After his completely dominant 2010 season when the left-hander was elected to the All-Star team and his 1.20 earned-run average was the lowest for a reliever in team history, nothing could go right for him last year.

Hong-Chih Kuo is scheduled to undergo his fifth elbow operation Friday, but his agent said he intends to pitch next season — even if it's not for the Dodgers. "There's no thought of retirement," Alan Chang said. "He's fully committed and highly motivated to do what it takes. " In the final month of the regular season, Kuo sounded uncertain about his plans for 2012, telling The Times he wanted to pitch but telling mlb.com he might want to run a restaurant in his native Taiwan instead.

The first perfect game in American League history was thrown by a pitcher who ended it with a taunt, defending his teammates against an insult, screaming at the final batter, "How do you like that, you hayseed?" The year was 1904, and the pitcher was Cy Young. On Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium, imitating that long-ago barb with an inside fastball, Clayton Kershaw proved worthy of winning the award that carries Cy Young's name. Although Kershaw will never admit it, his pitch that plunked the Arizona Diamondbacks' Gerardo Parra in the elbow in the sixth inning of the Dodgers' 3-2 victory appeared to be a retaliation for Parra's crotch-grabbing, home-run posing insult of the Dodgers on Tuesday night.

Reporting from San Francisco -- Well, you can't win 'em all. The Dodgers received a shellacking Sunday, as Hiroki Kuroda was ineffective and the bullpen was downright awful in an 8-1 defeat to the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park. The loss was the Dodgers' first in six days. Plagued with command problems, Kuroda gave up three runs and eight hits in a season-low 42/3 innings. Considering how he pitched, the damage could have been far worse. Kuroda said the neck problems that bothered him in previous seasons have resurfaced in recent weeks.

Reporting from Atlanta -- Hong-Chih Kuo said baseball is fun for him again — and so long as his elbow holds up, the former All-Star reliever intends to pitch again next season. "I'll try to pitch," Kuo said. This wasn't always a given. In a season in which he landed on the disabled list because of an anxiety disorder and performed erratically, there were times when Kuo was noncommittal about his future. Kuo, whose earned-run average was 12.46 as recently as July 31, has looked like the Kuo of old in recent weeks.

The Dodgers had finally caught a break, a throwing error by the opposing third baseman that handed them a two-run lead in the eighth inning. Chad Billingsley had pitched seven magnificent innings. Andre Ethier had made a leaping catch at the right-field wall that turned a potential extra-base hit by Jason Heyward hit into a sacrifice fly. But, somehow, the Dodgers lost. Again. New closer Hong-Chih Kuo loaded the bases in the ninth inning to set up an implosion by recently acquired Octavio Dotel, who walked in a run and served up a two-run, walk-off single to Melky Cabrera that sent the Dodgers crashing to a 4-3 defeat against the Atlanta Braves.

When visiting the mound on opening day to remove Hiroki Kuroda, Manager Joe Torre made it a point to say something to his catcher. "Nice going," he said. Torre said he liked how Russell Martin instructed Kuroda to walk Adrian Gonzalez to load the bases in the sixth inning rather than give Gonzalez a chance to win the game. The call turned out to be the right one, as reliever Cory Wade induced an inning-ending groundout. "I think he did a nice job of not giving into the hitter," Torre said.

Does a spectacular month and a half make up for a yearlong slump? That's the question the Dodgers could be asking themselves when they consider what to do with James Loney this winter. Loney continued his recent tear on Saturday by hitting a ninth-inning solo home run that pushed the Dodgers into extra innings and set up a 7-6, 11-inning victory over the Colorado Rockies. Over his last 18 games, Loney is hitting .442 with four home runs, 10 runs batted in and 11 runs scored.

Reporting from Denver — While most of his teammates were still in the clubhouse Sunday morning, James Loney started playing long toss in the outfield at Coors Field. Before long, he was throwing off one of the mounds in the visitors' bullpen. This is what the Dodgers' season had come to. They were so short on usable arms that Manager Don Mattingly warned Loney that he could be called upon to pitch in an emergency. "Let's hope we don't see it today," Mattingly said. Mattingly was spared his nightmare scenario by Chad Billingsley, who couldn't prevent the Dodgers from falling into last place but pitched 7 2/3 innings of the team's 5-3 loss to the Colorado Rockies.