Chris Capuano placed on DL, Tim Federowicz recalled

One day after he left his start in the third inning against the Padres with a left calf strain, Dodgers pitcher Chris Capuano was placed on the 15-day disabled list. To take his place on the roster, the Dodgers recalled catcher Tim Federowicz from Triple-A Albuquerque.

Capuano will stay behind and not travel with the team to Baltimore. He will have an MRI on Thursday, then will have a platelet-rich plasma injection into his left calf, something his rotation mates Chad Billingsley and Zack Greinke have had done in their elbows.

"They like to wait until the second day for those PRP injections," Capuano said. "That's why they scheduled the MRI tomorrow morning to one, determine the degree of strain and two, figure out the exact spot to put that PRP so they get it in the right spot."

Manager Don Mattingly said if anybody other than Clayton Kershaw was starting on Wednesday, they might have recalled a relief pitcher even for only one day. But the choice of Federowicz had more to do with giving the Dodgers an extra position player heading into the weekend series against the Orioles.

"It was a little bit of logistics of when Ted (Lilly) is coming off, just being able to go back and forth with that. We're getting ready to go into the American League and we have a DH. It allows us to do some things with A.J. (Ellis)," Mattingly said "It's really for the American League looking to have an extra guy so we can pick the guy we want to DH."

So in the midst of one of the worst offensive starts in franchise history, averaging under three runs per game, the Dodgers' solution is field a lineup with two catchers?

"You can look at the first day, and Ramon Hernandez has busted Hammel," Mattingly said. "We needed an extra player so it allows you to be able to use extra guys. I don't know who the other guy we would bring up would be. We could bring up Elian (Herrera) or Dee (Gordon) or the guys on the roster, but that puts us in a bind."

Hernandez is hitting .474 (9-for-19) with five doubles and a triple lifetime against Jason Hammel, so pencil him into the lineup on Friday. Mattingly also mentioned Carl Crawford as a potential designated hitter during the weekend series in Baltimore.

But those last two sentences from Mattingly was telling, in case you had any thoughts of Yasiel Puig or even Alex Castellanos being more than a blip on the radar at this point in the season.

Notes

• Federowicz said he got the call at 1:30 a.m. last night. He was optioned after the game on Apr. 9, but he is allowed to be recalled within 10 days because he is replacing an injured player in Capuano. Also, because Federowicz's option didn't last 20 days, he will get continuous service time as if last week's option never happened.
• Federowicz will likely be optioned back to Triple-A whenever Lilly is activated to start. Mattingly maintained the most likely date for Lilly to pitch is Apr. 24, the second game of the series in New York against the Mets, which would allow the rest of the rotation to pitch with an extra day of rest. Lilly will throw a bullpen session on Thursday.
• Jerry Hairston dropped his appeal of his one-game suspension and will serve it during Wednesday's game, leaving the Dodgers with 24 players.
  

Game info

Time: 7:10 p.m.

TV: KCAL

MLB Gameday