Dodgers 6, Indians 4

The big story today was James McDonald. Joe Torre told us this morning that he was going to get a more serious look for the fifth starter’s spot, so serious that in order to stretch him out a little, they relegated Hiroki Kuroda to a Double-A game with Milwaukee to get his innings in today. McDonald responded with three hitless innings, facing the minimum nine batters, and with the qualifier that this could change in a heartbeat, I would have to surmise that he is now the FRONTRUNNER for the fifth spot. Torre wanted to get Shawn Estes some innings, too, so McDonald had to go to the bullpen to throw the rest of his pitches because he got through his three innings on so few. … Estes pitched well for two innings, then ran out of gas in the sixth. He’s become a longer and longer shot all the time. … Doug Mientkiewicz, who just returned last night from his quad injury, had a big day, going 3 for 4 with a double and a triple — although if the official scorer had been paying attention, he would have noticed that Mientkiewicz had stopped at second before going to third when the ball got loose, but it’s spring training so no one really cares. … Juan Castro went 2 for 2 with a double and is now hitting .459. … X Paul was 1 for 1 with a triple and is now hitting .409. … Russell Martin caught seven innings and hit his third home run of the spring, a two-run, game-tying shot off Jeremy Sowers in the seventh inning. Martin has nine RBI despite missing so much time for the WBC. … Brian Mazone got two outs without giving up a run and is now scoreless through six appearances and 5 1/3 innings. … Dodgers improve to 12-11.