There was a lot of attention and fanfare at LoanMart Field – home of the Dodgers Advanced Single-A affiliate Rancho Cucamonga Quakes – on Thursday evening.

Why, you ask?

Because Dodgers left-hander Rich Hill made his first of what figures to be at least a couple rehab starts to determine if he can remain blister free on his left middle finger, a condition that has plagued him over the past two seasons of his 13-year major league career and one that has already landed him on the Dodgers 10-day disabled list twice this season and on the 15-day disabled list last season after he was acquired from the Oakland A’s at the August 1 trade deadline. The Dodgers would go on to re-sign the 37-year-old Boston, Massachusetts native to a lofty three-year / $48 million during the off-season.

But to the surprise of the modest LoanMart Field crowd of 2,405 and a larger-than-normal media presence, Hill faced only six batters when he was removed from the game by Quakes manager Drew Saylor (at the direction of Dodgers trainers also on-hand) after making a total of 29 pitches, of which 17 were strikes.

“Shoulder feels great, finger held up well,” Hill told reporters after his abbreviated outing. “Obviously it is disappointing in the fact that it was only two-thirds of an inning, but getting the work in and everything like that was a success from a finger standpoint. We reached our pitch limit and then from there it was just the matter of finishing up in the bullpen and getting everything done out there.”

Even though Dodgers left-hander Rich Hill lasted only two-thirds of an inning in his first rehab start with the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes on Thursday evening, he considers the outing a success. He also came out of it blister-free. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

In his brief outing – which concluded with him throwing an additional 31 pitches in the Rancho Cucamonga bullpen – Hill allowed four runs on three hit with a walk. The good news is that both of the outs that he recorded were strikeouts on his extremely effective trademark curveball.

“Curveball was very sharp,” Hill said. “Fastball came out the way I wanted it to, a little bit up in the zone, but I think overall from the standpoint of the way the ball coming out of my hand 15 days or so of getting out there and getting back into competition, it felt great.

“I would like to push it and keep going but I understand the medical side of it, where less is more because you want to get to the next day and see how it represents itself,” Hill added. “The more times you can throw the baseball and kind of callus it up as much possible, the better off you are going to be in the end.”

When asked what remedies he was using to combat his blister issues, Hill was straightforward with his answer.

“Just kind of the same things we were doing last year,” Hill said. “There is not any magic solution or anything that you can do for blisters. I know everyone has their own solution, has great remedies to fix the blisters, but really just time and being able to callus over by throwing, that’s the biggest thing. The more times you can throw the baseball and kind of callus it up as much possible, the better off you are going to be in the end.”

Hill added that the remedy that has been most successful for him is placing his hand into a bucket of rice to help reduce moisture.

So where does he go from here?

“I don’t know. I have no idea, to be honest with you,” Hill said. “Today was a good day as far as the right step in the right direction, just get out there and hopefully get some more up and downs instead of getting two-thirds of an inning … just get back into my routine and get ready for whatever the next step is.”