Two down, two to go.

That’s if you ask Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager how many boxes he still needs to check off before he is ready to return to full major league action.

Seager had his first at-bats since spraining his left knee back on March 12 while rounding first base after a hit. He appeared as the designated hitter in two simultaneous minor league games on the backfields of Camelback Ranch on Thursday. And even though he went 0 for 4 with two strike outs, he says that he is completely pain free.

“The ABs were okay, per se … can’t expect too much,” Seager said. “I’ve had no problems so far, so that’s nice. Mentally it’s been great because there has been no pain. It’d probably be a little bit more pressure if there were pain. If I had any setbacks I would kind of message myself out. So far it’s been good on both sides.

Although Seager did not get a hit in his four at-bats on Thursday, he did hit an opposite field fly out to deep left in his first plate appearance. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka

Because Seager went hitless, he didn’t have to do much running on Thursday but said that he has been doing quite a bit of running during his daily workouts.

“We rounded first, stopped, like they we’re back thinking so I got that same motion that buckled [my knee] the last time,” said Seager. “We did some other little things like breaking back on tags, breaking on contact plays, any little jerky back and forth motions we would get, we did.”

That being said, the soon-to-be 22-year-old Charlotte, North Carolina native did not do any actual game-situation running on Thursday – and he might not on Friday either; at least according to Dodgers manager Dave Roberts.

“Probably not,” Roberts said. “He would just kind of be thinking it through – be a ball in the gap – and jog rounding first base.”

As for when he might return to major league action, Seager said that he isn’t really sure what the plan is yet.

“They haven’t really told me, it’s kind of been day to day. It’s come in, feel fine, let’s see what you can do tomorrow,” Seager said.

There was one box that Seager checked off on Thursday that he would rather not have – having to quickly move out of the way of a pitch thrown near his head.

“You don’t want it to get thrown at your head but now I guess I can check off the box that I can get out of the way and not have any pain, so I guess you got that going for you,” said Seager with a chuckle.

Seager managed to get out of the way of a high inside fastball to check that rather uncomfortable box off his list. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

The other box Seager still needs to check off is playing of the defensive side of the ball, which he will do later this morning.

“[Friday’s] schedule is kind of play on the defense, play six innings, get four or five more ABs,” he said.

Asked if there was a little rust being back out there for the first time in two weeks, Seager didn’t hesitate in his answer.

“Oh there was a hundred percent rust. It’s two weeks now, no ABs, so you’re not going to be right back at it where you want it to be in this point of spring training,” Seager said. “That’s okay, go out and get a couple ABs a day and hopefully be back.”

By every indication it appears that Seager will be ready on Opening Day a mere 10 days from today.

“As long as I keep checking off boxes I should be ready,” he said. “We’ll see. Hopefully it holds up.”

Hopefully indeed.