Broxton is the Dodgers’ closer … sort of

Torre met with him today and basically told him that he’ll be the PRIMARY closer, and that he will get the call if the Dodgers have a slim lead in the ninth tonight, but he won’t be the ONLY closer. Chan Ho Park is out of the rotation so he can be used in that role on occasion, and Torre also said he might use Hong-Chih Kuo or Joe Beimel in save situations if the other team had two or three left-handed hitters coming up in the inning. It sounds like closer by committee, with the one qualifier being that Broxton is going to get the call MOST of the time. … Park will be replaced in the rotation by veteran right-hander Jason Johnson, whose contract was purchased from Las Vegas earlier today to take Takashi Saito’s roster spot. … Stop us if you have heard this one before: Jason Schmidt has been shut down, his rehab assignment put on hold. He felt discomfort in his shoulder after his last rehab start. Torre said he’ll throw a couple of side sessions here, and if those go well, he’ll resume his rehab. … Oh, and even as Don Mattingly takes over as hitting coach, Jeff Pentland, one of what are now three roving minor-league hitting instructors, will be with the club for the next few days to work with Andruw Jones, whom he worked with during Jones’ all-too-brief rehab at Vegas. Jones apparently didn’t swing and miss at a single pitch during that three-day assignment, which originally was supposed to last a couple of weeks until Juan Pierre went on the DL.

Here’s the lineup
RF Kemp
LF Ethier
C Martin
2B Kent
SS Garciaparra
1B Loney
CF Jones
3B DeWitt
RH Kuroda