Welcome Back Vin Scully; Baseball Season Can Now Officially Begin

Indians (10-5-2) at Dodgers (6-8-1)

1:05pm, Camelback Ranch, Glendale, AZ

The baseball season can now officially begin, because Vin Scully is back to announce Dodger games.  He will call today's game on KCAL, his first of the spring, as the Dodgers take on the Indians at Camelback Ranch.  Scully this morning recounted his fall from earlier this week.  Jim Peltz of the LA Times has all the details.  If you needed further proof on how nice and humble a person Scully is, here it is:

In a five-minute session with reporters at the Dodgers' spring-training camp at Camelback Ranch, Scully talked about the outpouring of concern among his fans and said "I do appreciate that immensely and humbly, and I guess that’s why I’m embarrassed to put them through anything at all, especially when it was so simple and harmless."

Eric Stults, vying for the fifth starter spot, will start for the Dodgers.  He has only made two starts so far -- two innings in the Cactus League and three innings in Taiwan -- but has yet to give up a hit this spring.

Blake DeWitt is making his 12th start at second base in the Dodgers' 16 games in Arizona.  Jamey Carroll and Ronnie Belliard were both in Taiwan with the Dodgers, but when all three second basemen have been in camp together DeWitt has made eight of 11 starts at second, and one of the games he didn't start was the split squad game last night, after DeWitt started the day game.

Russell Martin was busy this morning, batting in a simulated game against minor leaguers Tim Sexton and Sean Thompson, then took batting practice on the field before the game:

It has been a busy transactional week for the Dodgers, as they have cut their big league camp roster from 61 to 43:

• Monday (10 moves):  Optioned Ivan DeJesus, Scott Elbert, Brent Leach, and Travis Schlichting.  Reassigned Eric Gagne, John Lindsey, Argenis Reyes, Michael Restovich, and Scott Dohmann to minor league camp; returned Rule 5 pick Armando Zerpa to Boston
• Wednesday (4):  Reassigned Juan Perez, Prentice Redman, Trayvon Robinson, and Russell Mitchell to minor league camp
• Friday (1): Optioned Javy Guerra to minor league camp
• Saturday (3):  Optioned Lucas May, Jon Link, and James McDonald to minor league camp
  

Joe Torre is out of town today, and Don Mattingly is managing the club.  With that in mind, here are the lineups:

Ramon Troncoso and Aaron Miller are scheduled to follow Stults on the mound for the Dodgers. 

Pitchers scheduled to follow Jake Westbrook for the Indians are Mike Goslin, Frank Herrmann, Josh Judy, Chris Perez and Joe Smith.

TV: KCAL

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