PHILADELPHIA — Felipe Lopez just wanted to catch the first fly ball hit his way yesterday afternoon.
“Then I’ll be all right,” Lopez said. “It’s like anything else. If you do it the first time, then you get comfortable.”
Sure enough, once the Washington Nationals infielder-turned-left fielder hauled in Pedro Feliz’s second-inning drive with a nice running, backhanded catch, everything felt normal.
With their top two left fielders (Wily Mo Pena and Elijah Dukes) on the disabled list, the Nationals experimented yesterday with Lopez, a career infielder.
The verdict: So far, so good. Lopez successfully caught four fly balls hit his way. He had a bit of trouble judging Feliz’s sinking liner in the fifth and wound up short-hopping the ball, but that’s as close as he came to making a mistake.
“Better than I expected,” he said. “I thought it was going to be a lot to adjust. I had pretty easy fly balls. I was comfortable.”
After losing out to Ronnie Belliard for the starting second baseman’s job, Lopez embraced general manager Jim Bowden’s idea. Even if it meant running out to left field yesterday after only minimal instruction from coach Jerry Morales.
Manager Manny Acta said the situation warranted Lopez playing a new position.
“This is not the final game of the World Series,” Acta said. “This is the fourth game of the regular season. This is a time for us to find out if he can do it or not.”
Young battles back
Dmitri Young couldn’t play yesterday because of lingering tightness in his lower back, an injury that first cropped up during spring training.
The veteran first baseman informed Acta he didn’t think he could play the field or hit before the game. He had an MRI taken yesterday, the results of which won’t be known until tomorrow.
“He’s going to be checked by the doctor, and I guess for now we’re going to play it day by day,” Acta said.
Young declined to comment after the game.
Cordero aims for Sunday
Chad Cordero played catch yesterday and said his injured right shoulder felt fine. The closer, who received a cortisone shot Sunday after feeling a “pop” in his shoulder, plans to throw off a bullpen mound tomorrow in St. Louis and hopes to pitch Sunday for the first time this season.
“With all the stuff that they have now — medicines and the way they stretch everybody out — stuff like this tends to go by pretty quick,” said Cordero, who has never been on the DL in his career. “Everything right now is just going really good. We’ll just wait and see how it is tomorrow.”
Extra bases
Shawn Hill allowed one run and three hits over four innings yesterday in an intrasquad game at extended spring training. The right-hander, on the DL with a sore forearm, threw a fastball that was clocked between 86 and 89 mph. He hopes to start Tuesday for Class A Potomac and possibly return to the Nationals’ rotation by April 13. …
Catcher Johnny Estrada, on the DL with right elbow tendinitis, will begin a rehab assignment tonight with Class AAA Columbus.
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