John Ely to start for Dodgers on Sunday against Padres [Update: Hector Gimenez to DL]

It’s the return of John Ely. Anyway, his return for at least one game.

Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly said after Saturday night’s game that the right-hander would be called up from triple-A Albuquerque and start Sunday’s series finale against the Padres.

That means, naturally, a player has to be sent down. That part of the equation he did not share. It’s presumed to be catcher A.J. Ellis, who has options left, as opposed to catcher Hector Gimenez, who does not. Personally, I’d stick with Ellis -- who turned 30 Saturday -- over Gimenez, who really hasn’t shown anything during the early going.

[Updated, 11:04 a.m.: Guess there was a reason the Dodgers did not announce who was making room for Ely on Saturday night. They were still making up their minds.

At first on Sunday, the Dodgers said Ellis was going down to triple-A Albuquerque and he was packing his bags. Then he was unpacking them. The Dodgers said Gimenez had right knee pain and placed him on the 15-day disabled list. Ellis was back.]

Tim Redding not expecting to be sidelined

A day after he was removed from a game because of back pain, fifth-starter candidate Tim Redding said he was able to throw without any discomfort.

Redding said he expected to throw a bullpen session Sunday, as was previously scheduled.

Redding said he started feeling pain in the lower-right area of his back in the second inning of the Dodgers' 6-3 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday. He left the game in the fourth inning.

John Ely, the Dodgers' other fifth-starter candidate, was optioned to minor-league camp, where it will be easier for him to remain on a starter's schedule. The Dodgers don't need a fifth starter until April 12.

In other news, the Dodgers reassigned Eugenio Velez to minor-league camp and granted Ron Mahay his release.

The Dodgers' lineup Saturday versus the San Diego Padres in Peoria:

Rafael Furcal SS
Xavier Paul LF
Andre Ethier RF
Matt Kemp CF
James Loney 1B
Juan Uribe 3B
Rod Barajas C
Jamey Carroll 2B
Clayton Kershaw SP

-- Dylan Hernandez, reporting from Phoenix

Photo: Tim Redding delivers a pitch Friday against the Diamondbacks. Credit: Chris Morrison / US Presswire

Tim Redding added to list of injured Dodgers

Right-handed starter Tim Redding exited the Dodgers' 6-3 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks in the fourth inning Friday because of lower back pain on his right side. Redding immediately returned to Phoenix, where he was scheduled to be examined.

With Jon Garland expected to start the season on the disabled list because of a strained side muscle, Redding was the favorite to replace him as the Dodgers' fifth starter. If Redding is hurt, the job is likely to  go to John Ely.

RELATED:

Dodgers' Rafael Furcal says he's recovered from off-season illness

Matt Kemp's new main man on Dodgers is Davey Lopes

-- Dylan Hernandez, reporting from Tucson

Photo: Tim Redding works against the Giants in a spring training game two weeks ago. Credit: Eric Risberg / Associated Press

Dodgers Web Musings: A day when team is dominated by the left

It feels like a left-field kinda day.

As in, who used to play, who’s going to play it, and will they be any good when they do. Maybe we’ll just start a daily theme post.

--Marcus Thames gets his Times’ T.J. Simers intro, and I’m guessing he might have been less than thrilled with questions about his defense.

--ESPN/L.A.’s Tony Jackson approaches Thames from a different angle, saying he is willing to play first base or anywhere else to help out.

--Manny Ramirez, that old Dodgers left-fielder, is getting a clean slate with Tampa Manager Joe Maddon, writes ESPN’s Jayson Stark, who said he was listening to the dreadlocked star. However:

"I know one thing," says a veteran big-league coach and manager. "It will end horribly."

Ah, what are the odds?

--Mike Scioscia’s Tragic Illness’ Mike Petriello wonders just how many different players will make an appearance in left for the Dodgers this season and if it will top last year’s mark of nine.

--Vin Scully Is My Homeboy’s Roberto Baly has his latest billboard shot in the Dodgers’ new marketing campaign, their takeoff of "It’s time for Dodger baseball."

This one shows the really old left-fielder, Kirk Gibson, raising a fist with the slogan: It’s time for magic.

Meanwhile, in posts not focusing on left:

--The Times’ Dylan Hernandez said Tim Redding, who is unexpectedly competing for a spot in the rotation, was turned down by teams in South Korea and Japan in the offseason.

--True Blue L.A.’s Eric Stephen correctly points out that my numbers from last Friday on the Dodgers’ attendance downturn incorporate two games at Dodger Stadium, which are still to be played this season, and games at Camelback are actually in line with baseball’s overall spring decline.

--James Loney, every stat-loving fan’s favorite player, is examined by Dodgers.com’s Ken Gurnick. Loney said he’s looked at tapes and made corrections to a swing that deserted him in the second half last year.

Said Loney: "I'm thinking that if I can drive in 90 and hit .270 with bad mechanics, imagine if I was doing all the right things?"

-- Steve Dilbeck

Dodgers' Colletti says Garland injury won't require seeking outside pitching

Jon Garland hopefully will at most miss one or two starts next month after an MRI confirmed the right-handed pitcher suffered a strained oblique muscle in his torso, Dodgers General Manager Ned Colletti said Thursday.

And if Garland does miss any starts, the club's John Ely and Tim Redding are the leading candidates to replace him and the Dodgers don't need to search outside the team for more pitching, Colletti said.

"We still have three weeks left in camp and we really don’t need a fifth starter for a little while into the season, so hopefully [Garland] won’t miss much more than a turn or two," Colletti said at the Dodgers' Camelback Ranch spring-training camp in Glendale, Ariz.

If Garland's absence was "going to be half a season or more, yeah, you’d think about" looking for another pitcher, "but that doesn’t make a lot of sense to go acquire somebody to fill a start or two," he said.

In the Dodgers' clubhouse, Garland, 31, said all he could do with the injury was "give it time, let it heal," adding that "I sneezed last night and it hurt pretty bad."

Garland suffered the injury Wednesday while pitching to the Seattle Mariners. He was acquired by the Dodgers during the off-season in a one-year deal after posting a 14-12 record last year with the San Diego Padres.

"It's one of those things that's kind of out of your hands," Garland said of the injury. "I’m always going to hold out hope" about not starting the season on the disabled list, he said, "but the Vegas odds aren’t looking too good right now.”

-- Jim Peltz in Phoenix

Photo: Dodgers pitcher Jon Garland walks off the field with trainer Stan Conte after Garland strained a muscle in the Dodgers' spring-training game against the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday. Credit: Nam Y. Huh / Associated Press

Dodgers will have to scramble to fill rotation void

So like I was saying, aren’t things suddenly looking up for that John Ely?

Now, I’m a powerful fellow, but truth be known, I do not possess any particular soothsayer talents. Had absolutely no idea that less than two hours after posting that Ely could pitch himself back into the Dodgers' plans that yet another starter would go down.

On to Plan B! Whoops, make that Plan C.

The Dodgers went into camp all pleased that they had not only a solid five-man rotation, but Vicente Padilla at the ready when the inevitable injury hit one of their starting five.

That lasted about as long as a calm Charlie Sheen moment, Padilla throwing his elbow out almost before he could walk into the Dodgers’ Phoenix clubhouse.

And now comes Wednesday, right-hander Jon Garland injuring his oblique muscle in the second inning.

As The Times’ Bill Shaikin said, those types of injuries typically require a month’s recovery time, meaning the Dodgers are suddenly down to four starters and looking for a fifth. And Charlie Haeger’s not even available.

The most obvious in-house candidates are nonroster invitee Tim Redding and Ely, both of whom have yet to allow an earned run in their first three appearances this spring. Reliever Blake Hawksworth also started eight games for the Cardinals last year.

Redding is 33, and when last seen in the majors back in 2009 he was sporting a 5.10 earned-run average and a 3-6 record for the Mets. Not a lot of upside there.

Ely is only 24 but coming off a  Jekyll-and-Hyde season. Either that, or he’s just great out of the blocks and has nothing down the stretch.

But Ely has looked like the guy who unexpectedly caught the Dodgers’ imagination last May, and they’re going to have to have someone. They do have three days off in April, but there’s a stretch of 20 consecutive games, meaning that if they wanted to flirt early with a four-man staff, their starters would have to go on four days' rest on five consecutive starts. That’s not gonna happen.

The Dodgers have three weeks to figure this out, so it’s not  as if they have to decide today. But they’ll have to formulate a plan in spring reasonably soon. Even with a couple of early off days, they would at least need a fifth starter by April 12.

With three starters in their 30s, plus Padilla, injury in the rotation seemed inevitable. Three weeks into spring, though, is just a tad early. Garland had pitched at least 190 innings in his past nine consecutive seasons, so it’s not like he’s injury prone.

But there is an opening now, and a dwindling number to fill it. Opportunities, however, keep expanding.

-- Steve Dilbeck

Jon Garland injured in Dodgers game

Jon Garland left Wednesday's game with an injury that could force the Dodgers to scramble for a fifth starter in their starting rotation.

Garland clutched his left side in the second inning after delivering ball one to Josh Wilson of the Seattle Mariners. He left the game holding his side and, although the Dodgers have not identified the problems, his actions were consistent with an oblique injury, which can require a month or more of recovery.

With Vicente Padilla already out after surgery to repair a nerve below his right elbow, the Dodgers now have four healthy starters -- Clayton Kershaw, Chad Billingsley, Hiroki Kuroda and Ted Lilly.

The top candidates for the No. 5 spot, if Garland is seriously injured, are John Ely, who has thrown six scoreless innings this spring, and Tim Redding, who has thrown eight scoreless innings.

-- Bill Shaikin in Glendale, Ariz.

Dodgers fall to Giants, 8-3

If Tim Redding had remained in South Korea for another season, he said he would probably be at a training camp in Guam right now, searching for a fast-food joint or chatting with friends on the computer.

The retread right-hander was one of the few bright spots for the Dodgers' split-squad team that lost, 8-3, to the San Francisco Giants on Saturday at Scottsdale Stadium.

A 33-year-old veteran of eight major league seasons, Redding held the defending World Series champions to two hits over two scoreless innings.

“Lot better than I really kind of anticipated,” said Redding, who was sent home early a day earlier because of a stomach-related illness.

In first-year Manager Don Mattingly’s first game of the spring, the Dodgers were brutalized in the third and fourth innings, as the Giants scored a combined eight runs off Carlos Monasterios and Oscar Villarreal.

In the third inning, Monasterios was pounded for five consecutive hits, the last a two-run triple by Nate Schierholtz that put the Giants ahead, 4-1.

The Giants added four runs in the fourth inning, which was capped by a two-run home run off Villarreal by a slimmed-down Pablo Sandoval.

The Dodgers also lost a split-squad game to the Angels, 4-1, on Saturday.

-- Dylan Hernandez, reporting from Scottsdale, Ariz.

Photo: Dodgers first baseman James Loney is tagged out by Giants catcher Chris Stewart in the first inning Saturday. Credit: Rick Scuteri / Reuters

Dodgers sign pitcher Tim Redding, but still no answer to left-handed reliever need

The Dodgers signed another pitcher Monday.

Nope, he is not left-handed. He’s not even a reliever, really.

It’s Tim Redding, who turns 33 in February, a journeyman who last pitched in the majors with the New York Mets in 2009.

This is one of those take-a-flier signings; little risk, possible reward, some insurance. The Dodgers signed him to a minor-league contract with an invite to their major-league camp. The Dodgers made a similar deal earlier with Dana Eveland, who’s at least left-handed.

The Dodgers' bullpen remains devoid of a second left-hander after Hong Chih-Kuo, and they are in serious need of a situational lefty.

Left-handed, free-agent relievers are in short supply, and a wholly unimpressive group (ex-Dodgers Joe Beimel, Will Ohman, Dennys Reyes, or 40-year-old Ron Mahay). Unless you want to count ex-Angel Brian Fuentes, 35, who still wants closer money and years.

Time, though, is beginning to run out.

The main in-house candidate is probably Scott Elbert, who mysteriously left triple-A Albuquerque last season. Despite an encouraging performance in the Arizona Fall League, it would be chancy to count on someone who has mostly been a starter and missed half of last season for unexplained reasons.

So for now, the Dodgers are adding Redding, who pitched last season in the minors for the New York Yankees and Colorado Rockies. In August he was released to pitch in South Korea.

Redding has mostly been a starter during his eight-year career, going 37-57 with a 4.95 earned-run average while pitching for five teams. He looks like safety-value material, headed to Albuquerque and waiting to see if injuries befall the Dodgers’ rotation.

Meanwhile, the search for another left-handed reliever goes on, unpromising as it may be.

-- Steve Dilbeck