Dodgers pitcher Chad Billingsley lasted 1 1/3 innings in his only rehab start for Single-A Rancho Cucamonga on April 6. (Associated Press photo)
“Nice and easy,” he said. “Fastballs, changeups. I wasn’t trying to throw hard. It was nice and easy.”
Billingsley hadn’t been throwing for three weeks before last week in Miami, when he resumed playing catch off flat ground. Tuesday’s bullpen session was only his second since his three-week break.
Because of that, Billingsley said he was told to dial back after hitting 82 mph on the radar gun.
“I’m mostly focused on building endurance,” he said.
Billingsley is basically re-starting the rehab process that preceded his only rehabilitation start a month ago for Single-A Rancho Cucamonga. During that game, he felt pain in his elbow, forcing him to essentially re-start a throwing program that he started in the off-season.
The 29-year-old right-hander hasn’t begun throwing curveballs yet, but might do so off flat ground next week. That will happen sometime during the Dodgers’ 10-day, three-city road trip that begins Friday in Phoenix.
Billingsley, who had Tommy John surgery in April 2013, admitted that re-starting the process has been “deflating.”
“When you’re doing so well throwing in a rehab game, I’m four more outings away from being back,” he said. “It happens. It’s definitely deflating. You start getting so close, pull the reins back, and something happens. It’s tough. Got to go through that whole rehab process, treatments and everything. Building back there again.”
