The Dodgers will place right-hander and opening-day starter Hiroki Kuroda on the 15-day disabled list Saturday with a mild strain of his left oblique, a move that was mostly precautionary for a condition that isn't believed to be serious.
Kuroda pitched 5 2/3 solid innings in Monday's season-opening win at San Diego. But he felt discomfort in his left side while throwing his normal side session Wednesday and was immediately sent back to Los Angeles to see team physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache on Thursday and undergo an MRI, which showed nothing out of the ordinary. Kuroda rejoined the team in Arizona Friday and tried to throw again before batting practice, only to feel the same discomfort. At that point, the decision was made to DL him.
The move will be made retroactive to Tuesday, so Kuroda will become eligible for activation on April 22. Dodgers trainer Stan Conte stopped short of predicting Kuroda will miss the minimum amount of time, but club officials clearly made the move in hopes of getting Kuroda back sooner rather than later.
"He was very disappointed, because he wanted to pitch," Dodgers manager Joe Torre said. "I had to talk to him twice about it. But we want to get this taken care of. It's better to lose him for a couple of starts or whatever it might be than (letting him pitch) and having it become something (worse). That didn't seem like a smart thing to do."
DIAMONDBACKS 9, DODGERS 4: James McDonald's first major league start began auspiciously, as he retired all six batters in the first two innings to run his career-long scoreless streak to 13 1/3 innings (including playoffs). But he lost the strike zone in the third, walking three batters, hitting one and throwing one pitch into the ground 20 feet short of the plate. He didn't survive the inning and wound up getting charged with five runs on just two hits.
