PHOENIX -- Bill Hall's nerves began getting to him as he was driving to the park. He was fine once he reached the field.
Hall singled on the first pitch he saw after a long injury absence, but Russell Martin, Delwyn Young and Valentino Pascucci homered to lift the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 7-3 win over the Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday.
"I'm just looking for something good to hit," said Hall, who tore his left calf muscle working out on his own before he was to report for training camp. "That's my new philosophy. If I see something good to hit, I'm going to try to put a good swing on it if it's in my zone."
It was a disappointing start for the third baseman, who had Lasik surgery in the offseason, worked on shortening his swing and shed about eight pounds from his playing weight last year.
"Everybody knows about all the adjustments I made," Hall said. "I felt like, 'Wow, OK, now is the day to go out and show everybody the adjustments I made and everything is better with what I'm doing.' I'm looking forward to a good season."
Hall, who hit 35 homers in 2006, is looking to bounce back this season after hitting .225 with 15 homers and 55 RBI. Hall's slump forced the Brewers to platoon him at third with Russell Branyan, who signed a free-agent deal with Seattle in the offseason.
"I feel like the month went by really fast," Hall said of rehabbing the injury. "To be honest, I was a little nervous driving to the field today. It was a little different feeling than the first part of spring training when I knew I wasn't playing."
Hall looked fine on the bases, too. After singling off Clayton Kershaw in the second, Hall stole second but was stranded.
Kershaw gave up two runs and four hits and departed with two outs in the fourth after Lorenzo Cain homered to left-center field. The 20-year-old left-hander, who is working on adding a changeup to his repertoire, struck out five, including the side after Hall's hit.
"I tried finishing guys with the fastball that inning," Kershaw said. "Every strikeout was a fastball up, climbing the ladder with two strikes."
Martin homered in the third inning off Manny Parra one day after manager Joe Torre announced he'll give Martin every other day off to rest his left foot. Martin first sprained the foot just prior to the opening of camp and Torre said the catcher had been reporting some pain lately.
It was Parra's first rough outing after six scoreless innings over his first two spring training starts. He gave up three runs and seven hits in four innings.
"I feel like I made good pitches," Parra said. "A lot of those hits, I couldn't do anything about a blooper here, a blooper there."
Notes
An oversight allowed Dodgers reliever Victor Garate to return to the mound, even though he was pinch hit for in the eighth inning. Garate replaced Erick Threets in the seventh after Threets hurt his shoulder, but Mitch Jones batted for Garate in the top of the eighth. Garate returned to pitch the bottom of the eighth, retiring one of three batters he faced before being relieved. ... Brewers manager Ken Macha said CF Mike Cameron (rib cage strain) hit off a tee Saturday and threw some after being injured during a drill on Thursday. ... Brewers 1B Prince Fielder got the day off.
