Pregame notes: Battle for Camelback Ranch

PHOENIX -- If Munetaka Murakami trying to play five Cactus League games in the opening week of action before bolting to the World Baseball Classic seemed a tad overzealous, that's because it was.

"Mune is out with general soreness," said Will Venable. "He wanted to play today. Ended up making the decision to take him out of the lineup. He was a full participant in our camp, just ahead of a long flight tomorrow morning. I thought it was in his best interest not to play today. [His schedule] was aggressive, and we pushed him and I think he’s feeling it a little bit. Just one of those things where we want to make sure he’s recovered ahead of that flight. It’s really important we don’t ask him to do too much here."

"In the past two weeks, it was a very tight schedule with everyday practices," Murakami said via interpreter. ""I had a lot of fatigue coming in. I was ramping up at a very high speed. I'm feeling very good at the plate, looking at a lot of balls as well. When I looked at the schedule with my long flight coming up tomorrow, I thought this was a very good idea to take a rest day and prepared for the upcoming schedule."

Venable didn't add any more specifics to Murakami's condition beyond "heavy legs" and the "bumps and bruises" endemic to playing baseball every day. But his teammate Shohei Ohtani isn't even playing a position in the WBC and already left town to prepare for it. That takes a lot of interest out of this late-February Cactus League game, but Ohtani's absence will help make Sean Newcomb's opening bid to make the White Sox rotation by facing the Dodgers lineup slightly less of a vision of hell.

It's important not to judge anyone too harshly for their results in February, as literally every historical study of spring training performance would already indicate it's mostly ephemera, but also players themselves often reveal that they're still adjusting to the basic functions of the baseball season.

"You get a little bit more tired because you really can’t replicate standing on your feet and in cleats all the time," said Colson Montgomery, who homered on Wednesday in his return from a brief illness.

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Everson Pereira is trying to put the best face on his tight right oblique, but some truth of the matter keeps poking through.

"I feel good, just a little tight, but I feel good," Pereira said via interpreter, before weaving back into English. "It's my oblique. It's just sore."

Pereira said he tweaked his side while working on the Trajekt, and is still awaiting the results of an exam he underwent on Wednesday. But he was scratched from the lineup six days ago and hasn't been able to swing a bat since, and is just progressing to be able to run with it again, so it's easy to imagine there will still some ramp-up necessary when he really does become symptom free.

"That's one of the more frustrating parts because this is a new team for me and I know I have to show what I can do," Pereira said via interpreter. "It's a competition, right?"

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Luisangel Acuña has a bandage above his left eyebrow after suffering a cut while sliding into second base on Wednesday. The 23-year-old is a polished enough baserunner that he seems to blame himself as much as anything else.

"I was doing my stolen base attempt and I was late, and when I was late, the helmet fell off and hit me in the eyebrow," Acuña said via interpreter.

Pretty much any ailment in early spring results in a couple days off, even when the player insists they're fine.

"I feel good to play but they said that for precautionary reasons, I'd be out for a couple of days," Acuña said via interpreter.

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Throwing more four-seamers than ever, if only because teams aren't prepared to see that shape of fastball from him, Jonathan Cannon put together three spotless innings of work on Wednesday, and is aware that he needed it.

"It kind of goes back to last season a little bit," Cannon said. "If you are doing a bad job, you are not going to have a job very long. I thought I did a pretty bad job the second half of last season. I want to prove what I can do. I have a little bit of a chip on my shoulder from last season coming into this spring. I’m going to go out and do the best I can do. All the decision-makers are in the other room. I have no say over that. I’m going to try to throw a bunch of strikes, get good results and keep stacking days."

First pitch: White Sox at Dodgers

TV: MLB.TV (Dodgers)

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