Amid concern over starting pitcher Zack Greinke's elbow discomfort, the Los Angeles Dodgers skipped his between-starts bullpen session Tuesday, casting some doubt on his ability to make Thursday's start against the division rival San Diego Padres.
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The Dodgers are closely monitoring Greinke's elbow, but the team is hopeful that he'll still be able to make his scheduled start Thursday at Dodger Stadium.
"He was having some soreness and things like that," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly told ESPN Los Angeles. "I guess you would have to say something's come up medically, but nothing that's hit our radar or on my daily e-mails [of injuries]."
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Greinke is coming off of an outing where he threw 99 pitches and held the Milwaukee Brewers scoreless through five innings while saying his arm felt better, reaching 95 mph in that outing. Greinke elected to not take the mound between starts and threw off of flat ground instead, which wasn't the first time he opted to do that in his career.
The loss of Greinke would be huge as the team has already lost Paul Maholm (season-ending knee surgery), and Josh Beckett (left hip impingement, likely also out for the year) to the disabled list and Hyun-Jin Ryu, who is expected to be back this season, was also placed on the DL with a strained glute.
Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw proclaimed this season to be World Series or bust for Los Angeles, but with the starting pitching continuing to take hits, accomplishing that feat may be difficult.
For now, Greinke is expected to make his next start, but the Dodgers are being careful about the discomfort in his elbow. Los Angeles sits at 71-56 heading into Wednesday's game with the Padres, good enough for first in the National League West with a 4.5-game lead over the San Francisco Giants.
Greinke, 30, is 12-8 this season with a 2.75 ERA and 170 strikeouts through 157.1 innings pitched and 25 starts this season.
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