With the second-half of Spring Training now in full swing, many Los Angeles Dodgers players have begun ramping up their workload in preparation for the start of the regular season.
Clayton Kershaw took part in his first bullpen session since Feb. 20 on Monday, throwing only fastballs in what Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt deemed a success.
Walker Buehler additionally will throw another round of live batting practice on Wednesday and is inching closer to making his 2019 Cactus League debut. He could potentially be in line to start on Opening Day should Kershaw be unavailable.
Rich Hill was also tabbed with another start on Monday on what is his 39th birthday. Though, that particular outing took place on the Minor League backfields.
According to SportsNet LA’s Alanna Rizzo, Hill was expected to be stretched out to five innings and 75 pitches during the start:
Rich Hill will be stretched out to 5 innings & 75 pitches today in a minor league game.
— Alanna Rizzo (@alannarizzo) March 11, 2019
To this point of Spring Training, Hill has mainly focused on mixing up the velocities of his curveball and fastball. Prior to Monday, the left-hander had yet to accumulate more than 2.1 innings in any of his outings.
Hill is coming off an excellent start against the Cleveland Indians in which he allowed only one run on three hits with four strikeouts over three innings pitched.
In three Cactus League starts to date, Hill is 1-1 with a superb 1.42 and 0.79 WHIP across 6.1 innings of work.
