Bad Elbow is Setback for Smoltz

Atlanta Brave pitcher John Smoltz, trying to come back after sitting out last year because of surgery on his right elbow, will “probably” open the season on the disabled list with tendinitis in the elbow, he said Thursday in Kissimmee, Fla.

Smoltz was passed over for his scheduled start on Wednesday. He had asked team physician Joe Chandler to check out his elbow Monday after feeling some soreness following his previous start against the New York Yankees.

“He told me it was tendinitis. There’s a little inflammation there,” Smoltz said. “I’ve just got to let it settle down.”

Smoltz has not pitched more than three innings in any start this spring.

“My goal was to pitch five, six innings and that’s not going to happen,” he said.

Smoltz, who is coming back from “Tommy John” surgery exactly one year ago today, said he had some pain after each of his three spring starts, but it lasted longer each time.

This spring, Smoltz has a 9.00 earned-run average. In six innings, he has given up nine hits and six earned runs while striking out seven and walking three.

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Rick Ankiel got off to yet another wild start for the St. Louis Cardinals.

Ankiel, who threw nine wild pitches in four anguishing postseason innings last fall, walked his first three batters before giving up a grand slam to the Montreal Expos’ Vladimir Guerrero.

Ankiel, who walked eight in his previous spring start against the Florida Marlins, threw only one strike to the first three batters, walking Peter Bergeron, Milton Bradley and Fernando Tatis on 13 pitches to open the game.

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Chuck Knoblauch got his first taste of left field, playing six innings of a minor league game for the Yankees’ single-A Tampa farm team.

Knoblauch made a running catch in the fourth inning on Travis Chapman’s drive to the gap in left-center and a one-handed catch of Alejandro Giron’s routine fly ball in the sixth. He picked up one single and made a one-hop throw to the cutoff man.

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Pittsburgh Pirate right-hander Francisco Cordova will visit Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, Ala., next week to determine the cause of pain in his right elbow. . . . Boston Red Sox third baseman John Valentin won’t be ready for opening day, ending his bid to return from a ruptured left knee and start the season in the lineup. . . . RealNetworks Inc. is close to a multiyear contract with Major League Baseball to broadcast games on the Web, a baseball spokesman said.