Closer Needs More Work

Dusty Baker watched his closer, Francisco Cordero, get beaten and battered by Boston Red Sox minor leaguers on Thursday night.

Baker blamed location. "We need to get his location where it needs to be," Baker said. "We need him."

Cordero limped home with a surgically repaired ankle last September.

The ankle is his "push off " ankle. The ankle takes Cordero's full weight and thrusts his 6'3", 238 pound frame toward home plate.

"The hardest thing about an injury like that is trusting that you won't hurt it," pitching coach Dick Pole said. "His velocity is 92-93. It was where it was last year at this time. Then with adrenaline it shot up to 95 toward the end."

Pole and Baker want Cordero to get more work.

They are going to pitch him more in the minor league games to build his arm strength.

"He's used to working two or three days in a row," Pole said.

"I'm not concerned," Baker said. "We are going to get him more action. We need to build his arm strength up. He couldn't throw as much this winter because of his ankle. He was a little bit behind. We still have two weeks. His velocity was up to 93 last night. It went from 88 - 90 -93 so the more he throws the stronger he'll get."

The Reds now have a plan to get the closer back to normal.

"It doesn't do any good to get concerned. The only thing you can do is to get him back. Worry helps even less. We have to get to work," Baker said.

Cordero gave up runs in each of his first four outings this spring. He allowed four, four, one and three hits respectively.

Then he worked consecutive games against World Series participants, Tampa Bay and Philadelphia in which he was not scored upon and allowed one hit in each outing.

Against the Red Sox he allowed a couple hits then got two hitters before two shots to the outfield gaps caused the inning to fall apart.