DODGERS NOTEBOOK: ISHII HASN'T QUITE GOT IT.

Byline: Tony Jackson  Staff Writer

VERO BEACH, Fla. - The problem with Kazuhisa Ishii, Dodgers pitching coach Jim Colborn said Sunday, is that he needs to walk around in the dark more often. Or something like that.

``If you walk down the hall at night in the dark, you need to hit the wall once, so that you know where the middle is,'' Colborn said after the Dodgers' 8-3, Grapefruit League loss to the New York Mets, a game in which Ishii walked four batters and allowed six earned runs in 1 2/3 innings. ``He hit the wall today.''

At some point, Colborn insisted, Ishii will simply flick on the light switch and walk unimpeded. But that will come only when the left-hander gets comfortable with the mechanical adjustment Colborn has had him working on since the end of last season. Ishii's assignment is to slow down his delivery and have more control over his upper body and his pitches.

But in his first game appearance since making the adjustment, Ishii clearly was out of his element. First, he didn't come on until the sixth inning, after pitch-efficient starter Hideo Nomo went longer than expected. Second, the new mechanics were messing with Ishii's head.

``If everybody jumps on me over this outing, I can't blame them,'' said Ishii, speaking through an interpreter. ``All I can do is keep working. In (the bullpen), I threw the ball well, but I didn't throw it well in the game. I'm changing my form. That's the main thing I have been working on, and now that I have made that change, I can build off of it.''

It is important to note that this was Ishii's spring debut, that opening day is four weeks away and that he remains totally committed to the adjustment. Although he is 23-17 with a 4.07 ERA in two major-league seasons, Ishii went 4-9 with a 5.79 after last year's All-Star break, a sign the hitters may have figured him out.

``He's not new to our league any longer,'' Dodgers manager Jim Tracy said. ``They're going to make him throw the ball over the plate. They're not going to chase as much as they did the past couple of seasons. We have a long time to get this thing squared away. But this is not a league where you can pitch behind in the count on a regular basis. You get away with it occasionally, but over the long haul, they'll adjust to you. So you have to adjust to them.''

Ishii's next attempt to adjust probably will come Friday against Boston. It also will probably come at the start of the game.

--First base: Shawn Green, who has worked out at first base all spring and now has played parts of three games there, is beginning to warm to the idea of moving there permanently.

``I like it a little more than I did two weeks ago,'' Green said. ``A lot more. I feel a little better there every day. But I haven't really had one of those tough plays yet where you just have to react and not think. Those are the ones that will tell the truth.''

Tracy said Sunday that unless and until he decides the Green-at-first- base experiment is a failure, Green will play there exclusively. Tracy also said there is no urgency to decide whether Green will begin the season at first base or in right field.

``We can go toward the latter part of the spring, but I don't mean the last three days,'' Tracy said.

``It'll be more like the last 10 or 12 days. To this point, I haven't seen him do anything at first base that I haven't liked. That's not only the way he fields groundballs and takes throws from the other infielders, but his footwork and positioning, too. He looks just fine over there. The decision we ultimately make will be the one that is in the best interests of this club and the one that makes us the best team.''

--Strong start: Newcomer Juan Encarnacion, who will play right field if Green plays first and left if Green plays right, apparently isn't bothered by the uncertainty. He is hitting .714 (5 for 7) for the spring, including a two-run, game-tying homer to right-center field off Aaron Heilman in the fourth inning of Sunday's game.

``We continue to do things (at the plate) we haven't seen a lot of in the past,'' Tracy said. ``We had (Paul) Lo Duca on second base, and Encarnacion had the at-bat of the day, in my opinion. He was simply trying to drive the ball to the right side and move the runner to third. As a result of having the right approach, he ended up hitting the ball out of the ballpark.''

Tony Jackson,[phone]

tony.jackson(at)dailynews.com

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