Dodgers 7, A’s 2.

The Dodgers came within a couple innings of a shutout against the A’s at Camelback Ranch, getting two scoreless innings from Chris Capuano in his first Cactus League start Thursday. [box score]

Matt Guerrier, Mike MacDougal, Todd Coffey and John Grabow all threw scoreless relief innings in their spring debuts. Stephen Fife allowed a run in the seventh inning and Wilfredo Ledezma allowed the A’s other run in the ninth.

Adam Kennedy started at DH and went 2-for-2. Andre Ethier finished 1-for-2 with a two-RBI double in the fourth inning, raising his spring batting average to .500. Matt Kemp went 1-for-3 with an RBI single and two strikeouts. His spring average sits at .143.

Alex Castellanos, who was acquired in the Rafael Furcal trade last
season, blasted the game’s only home run off A’s reliever Travis Schilchting in the
sixth inning.

Dee Gordon stole his first base of the spring, swiping second base after drawing a walk to lead off the game.

A few more notes:

Scott Rice won the Dodgers’ annual “Idol” clubhouse singing competition. Rice won with an original tune he composed about fellow pitcher Kenley Jansen. I asked him to give me a sample lyric but he declined, saying the context was necessary. “He’s a great guy,” Rice said of Jansen. “He took it in stride, so that’s always good.” Rice said he can’t carry a tune, but he knows how to play guitar, having bought one to kill time while he was playing in an instructional league in Lakeland, Florida: “I’m not a singer. I play the guitar really loud so I don’t have to sing in tune.”

Castellanos is 2-for-5 and coming off a fine season in Double-A (23 HRs, 14 steals, 1.009 OPS between Chattanooga and Springfield). But Dodgers manager Mattingly isn’t looking at the 25-year-old as a potential opening-day option as a fourth or fifth outfielder. “We’re going to see if he can play second base … we’ll play him a little bit of outfield but mostly second to see if that’s going to work out. I’m not going to sit here and say the kid has no chance — that’s not really fair … but it’s kind of more for the future. He can probably play two outfield spots right now. If he can play a little infield it makes him an interesting guy.”

Capuano will be the focus of tomorrow’s notebook. He’s sounding more like a fifth starter every time Mattingly addresses the subject — which is fine with Capuano, who has had a new lease on his (baseball) life ever since undergoing a second Tommy John surgery in 2008.

Former Dodgers third baseman Ron Cey and former Arizona State University baseball player Cory Hahn (a native of Corona), who was paralyzed from the chest down on this play in a collegiate game last year.