BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : DODGERS : Worrell’s Return Gets Mixed Results

Reliever Todd Worrell, out since the third game of the season because of a strained upper right forearm, returned to action Friday night for a ninth-inning mop-up stint. He entered with the Dodgers ahead, 7-0, and gave up a two-run home run to pinch-hitter Dave Clark but also struck out the last two batters of the game.

“I was just trying to start out somewhat under control and then try to gradually build up and get my fastball going,” Worrell said after the game. “That’s what kind of cost me the home run, because the pitch that was hit out of the park . . . I didn’t really throw it.

“But once I got past that, I was slowly cranking it up.”

Worrell said this was only the first step of the process that will get him ready to reassume the stopper role.

“I’m going to need to get five, six outings under my belt,” Worrell said. “I don’t have a lot of confidence right now to go out there and protect a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the ninth. But it’ll come.”

Worrell said he probably won’t pitch more than one inning at a time and won’t pitch in back-to-back games for several weeks.

In Worrell’s absence, veteran Jim Gott has stepped in as the Dodgers’ closer and saved six games in seven opportunities.

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Beginning his rehabilitation assignment with the Albuquerque Dukes, the team’s triple-A affiliate, Darryl Strawberry played five innings in right field, and went one for two with a single and a walk against Phoenix.