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Volquez feels rejuvenated with Dodgers

Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Edinson Volquez throws against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the first inning of a baseball game Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2013, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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Edinson Volquez likes Los Angeles.

He lives five minutes from Dodger Stadium, in the same building as fellow Dominicans Hanley Ramirez and Juan Uribe. He may not be as famous as Yasiel Puig, who also lives in Volquez’s building, but the affable newcomer has made friends all around the clubhouse. He works with pitching coach Rick Honeycutt, who, like the Padres’ Darren Balsley, is considered one of the best.

Oh, and there is that matter of winning. The Dodgers have done a lot of it this season, enough to put them in the National League Championship Series, which is where Volquez finds himself only weeks after he lost his last job.

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“Being in the playoffs again is big,” Volquez said Sunday. “When I was in San Diego, when you’d win one out of three, it’s not the same. I came down here and saw winning every day. It’s something very special.”

Volquez was released by the Padres on Aug. 27. The Dodgers signed him three days later. They may put him on the mound Monday, in a must-win Game 3 against the St. Louis Cardinals.

That is, if starter Hyun-Jin Ryu requires a quick hook, if something goes awry -- a feeling Volquez knows too well. The one-time All-Star was anything but with the Padres this season.

With the Padres, he was 9-10 with a 6.01 ERA. He was an Opening Day starter who didn’t finish starts, waylaid by bouts of wildness made even more frustrating by his stuff. Laugh if you want but when Volquez is on, hitters aren’t laughing.

Trouble was, he rarely was on. With the Padres this season, he averaged a walk every other inning. Opponents hit .291 against him.

“I was struggling the whole year,” Volquez said. “They tried everything they could to get me right.”

Nothing seemed to work. Volquez points to a three-week stretch in the spring, when he won a championship that cost him more than he would have liked.

“It was too early to get ready for the WBC,” said Volquez, who left spring training in Peoria, Ariz., to help the Dominican Republic on its undefeated run to the World Baseball Classic title. “Being away three or four weeks from my pitching coach, that’s the difference right there. When you stay with the pitching coach the whole two months and a half, it gets you in a rhythm. I was on my own in the WBC.

“When I got back I pitched a couple games in spring training. Then the season started and it wasn’t good.”

As Volquez mentioned, the Padres tried everything. He responded with the occasional strong start. The awful ones were more typical.

“Sometimes you try too much,” said Volquez, who said he would pitch in the WBC again, though he would pursue closer communication with his pitching coach. “And a lot of ideas, different ideas, they can make you think too much.”

With the Dodgers, Volquez has welcomed the change. The initial returns are encouraging -- in six regular-season appearances (five starts), he walked just eight batters over 28 innings. The Dodgers added the right-hander to the NLCS roster as a long reliever.

Volquez, who recently made his first relief appearance since 2008, would like to be a starter again. He would like to return to the Dodgers next season, but the soon-to-be free agent said he will look for the best offer.

Sunday, he stopped to reflect on the last two months, on being cut by a fourth-place team, on landing in first place and, now, the postseason.

“It’s a big difference from San Diego to here,” Volquez said. “The team over there is very young. Here, everyone knows what’s good because they’ve been playing a lot.

“I can’t complain about the Padres. They were good to me,” he added. “I’m just glad to be back in the big leagues wearing a uniform. I’m very happy to be here.”

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