The highest batting average for any player in the Dodgers Major League clubhouse belongs to the last one to sign — Garret Anderson — who seems close to locking up a roster spot as a left-handed bat off the bench.

Anderson had three more hits Sunday, raising his average to .438 (7-for-16) with one RBI, even though he didn’t sign until March 4. Doug Mientkiewicz, Anderson’s primary competition, is hitting a respectable .286 (6-for-21) with a homer and three RBIs. — Ken Gurnick

Fifth-starter candidate Eric Stults started Sunday’s game and held Cleveland scoreless the first three innings, but walked a pair and allowed a home run to Austin Kearns in a four-run fourth inning that he did not finish.

Stults said he was out of whack pitching out of the stretch. Three other contenders for the fifth starter spot — Charlie Haeger, Carlos Monasterios and Russ Ortiz — pitch in three different games on Monday. — Ken Gurnick

Minor League instructor and former Dodgers player Lenny Harris is in stable condition at a local hospital after undergoing emergency quadruple heart bypass surgery Saturday, a baseball source confirmed.

 

Harris was stricken with chest and arm pain Friday, but did not suffer a heart attack as there was no heart damage. In a Saturday operation, doctors found blockages in four arteries, with one 95 percent blocked.

 

Harris, 45, is in his second season as the senior hitting coach at the Dodgers’ Camelback Ranch-Glendale complex, working mostly with Minor League players. Harris returned to the Dodgers after serving the 2008 season as the Major League hitting instructor of the Washington Nationals. — Ken Gurnick

Catcher Russell Martin, healing quickly from a pulled groin muscle, swung without limitations in a three-inning simulated game Sunday morning against Minor League pitchers Tim Sexton and Sean Thompson. And that was just the start of his workout.

Martin also took batting practice at the stadium before Sunday’s game and had a drill blocking pitches in the dirt as it appears he’s in total catch-up mode in hopes of being ready by Opening Day or soon after.

Martin was expected to be out four to six weeks after suffering the injury March 5, but has all along doubted that would be necessary. Management believes he will need a rehab assignment before being activated, although the way he was bouncing around Sunday it seems that games won’t be that far off.

The only thing he hasn’t done yet is full-speed base running, which will be the acid test for a groin injury. — Ken Gurnick

Dodgers manager Joe Torre flew home to Los Angeles after Saturday night’s game and will miss Sunday’s game with a family commitment. Manager-in-training Don Mattingly will run the club Sunday and Torre will return to Arizona in time to manage Monday’s game. — Ken Gurnick

With starting catcher Russell Martin still sidelined by a pulled groin muscle, backup catcher Brad Ausmus missed practice Saturday after receiving an epidural injection in his lower back Friday.

Ausmus, who turns 41 next month, is sharing the catching duties with rookie A.J. Ellis while Martin is out. A club official said Ausmus has had similar back issues in the past that have responded well to the injections. — Ken Gurnick

The Dodgers cut three more players Saturday, most notably pitcher James McDonald, who spent most of last season in the Major Leagues.

 

Also optioned to Minor League camp were reliever Jon Link and catcher Lucas May. Link was acquired in the Juan Pierre trade that impressed manager Joe Torre with his aggressive approach. May is a promising switch-hitting catcher who hit .306 at Double-A Chattanooga last year.

 

For McDonald, the demotion was another blow in a dreadful spring and his fate was sealed when he allowed six runs in 1 1/3 innings Friday night against the Padres. After the game and long after the clubhouse cleared, McDonald was still sitting in front of his locker, in uniform, head in hands. — Ken Gurnick

Dodgers manager Joe Torre again delayed announcing his Opening Day starting pitcher Saturday afternoon, this time saying it would come sometime after Tuesday’s day off.

The Dodgers apparently are focused on narrowing down their large list of fifth starters and might need to juggle their current rotation order of starters — Clayton Kershaw, Chad Billingsley, Hiroki Kuroda and Vicente Padilla — to get the fifth-starter candidates enough innings for management to cut down the list. — Ken Gurnick

In a late switch, manager Joe Torre announced that Josh Towers would start Saturday afternoon’s game against the Rangers instead of Ramon Ortiz, who will follow Towers to the mound.

“We just flipped them,” said Torre.

Both non-roster pitchers have a chance at the fifth starter spot. Ortiz is considered more likely, although Towers is a former 13-game winner who also started last Sunday in Taiwan. — Ken Gurnick

Dodgers manager Joe Torre said he would announce his Opening Day starting pitcher before Saturday night’s exhibition game with the Padres. — Ken Gurnick