Repko Is Making Tracy Take Notice

VERO BEACH, Fla. â€”  Jason Repko is becoming difficult for the Dodgers to ignore. The outfielder is among the Grapefruit League’s leading hitters, and every day he seems to do something different to impress Manager Jim Tracy.

On Wednesday against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, it was reaching over the center field fence to take a home run away from Carl Crawford. Two days earlier, it was throwing out a runner at third base from right field.

Repko, who might be the most aggressive Dodger baserunner, doubled and singled Wednesday, giving him a team-high 19 hits.

“He is a winning baseball player,� Tracy said. “He is the type of player the fans in Los Angeles fall in love with. They like to see a guy who plays the game the way he does. He brings a lot to the table.�

Early in the spring, Repko, 24, appeared ticketed for triple-A Las Vegas, where he batted .311 last season. However, left fielder Jayson Werth is making a slow recovery from a wrist injury. Should Werth begin the season on the disabled list, one of several options is to play Repko against left-handed pitchers and Ricky Ledee against right-handers.

“I can only control how hard I play,� Repko said.

“I’ve played as well as I could expect. I can see the possibilities, but I’m only focused on playing hard.�

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Werth took swings for the first time and said the broken bone in his wrist gave him discomfort.

“I felt it at one point, during my extension,� he said. “There’s still something going on that’s not allowing me to be where I want to be. If I wasn’t a baseball player swinging a bat, I’d be fine.�

Werth said he was “extremely frustrated� because he came into camp in excellent condition and sustained the injury in only his second at-bat. He plans to swing a bat again today, but there is no timetable for when he might take batting practice.

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Sandy Koufax made one of his infrequent visits to Dodgertown and spent time in the bullpen with Scott Erickson, who is making a strong bid to open the season in the starting rotation.

Erickson is 37 and has 13 seasons in the major leagues. But he was perfectly willing to learn from the Dodger legend.

“I was honored he wanted to work with me,� Erickson said. “We talked about ways of generating torque in my delivery. And we talked about different places to stand on the rubber.�

Pitching coach Jim Colborn is thrilled every time Koufax, 69, shows up.

“I want him to give advice every time he comes,� Colborn said. “I want my pitchers interacting with Sandy Koufax.�

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Eric Gagne pitched a scoreless inning in the 3-2 win over the Devil Rays, giving up a double and striking out one. He said his mechanics were improved from his first outing two days ago.

Gagne, who is recovering from a sprained knee, said there was no doubt that he would be available when the season starts. He said he felt the knee “bite� once, when his cleats caught on the mound.

“I don’t care about my velocity or results right now,� he said. “I just hit spots and tried to get into a comfort zone.�

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Jeff Weaver gave up one run in six innings, which Colborn described as “his best string of innings this spring.� ... David Ross and Hee-Seop Choi hit their first home runs of the spring. It was also the first hit for Ross, who had been 0 for 17. ... Left-hander Wilson Alvarez has mild tendinitis in his shoulder, making it questionable that he could begin the season in the starting rotation.