Padilla Likely To Close For Dodgers After Broxton Sidelined

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Dodgers closer Jonathan Broxton will have an MRI exam of his aching elbow to determine the cause of his discomfort in recent outings.

With Broxton sidelined, Vicente Padilla will be the team's first-choice closer for now.

Mattingly said he and pitching coach Rick Honeycutt were watching tape of Broxton's consecutive four-pitch walks to Marlon Byrd and Carlos Pena during Tuesday night's 4-1 loss when the reliever and trainer Stan Conte informed the manager of the elbow issue.

"Honey was kind of showing me how the ball was coming out of his hand, and Honey felt like something was wrong," Mattingly said. "He said it's not the guy that he's known the whole time he's been here. Then Stan comes in and says: `You don't need to look at tape anymore.'

"To go from 96 [mph] two days ago throwing nine pitches, then yesterday when he's at 90, it tells you something's going on," Mattingly added. "Brox came in today and he said he had pain. I told him: `It's honorable that you want to pitch like this and you're willing to go out there.' But at the end, it doesn't do him any good. It's not fair to him and it's really not fair to everybody else, either. And we don't really know what kind of timeframe we're looking at."

Broxton, who got the save in last year's All-Star Game, is 1-2 with a 5.68 ERA in 14 appearances -- converting seven of eight save chances. The six-year veteran, who had a career-high 36 saves in 2009 and dropped to 22 last year, has never been on the disabled list since making his big league debut on July 29, 2005.

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