Perez Volunteers for Fenway Duty

PHOENIX — In a move that may have inadvertently provided bulletin-board fodder for the Toronto Blue Jays, Odalis Perez requested and received permission to move his next start back a day so he could pitch against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park.

“We sensed disappointment that he was going to start the game against Toronto, and you could tell by the tone of his voice that Boston was the team he was interested in pitching against, so he’s going to get it,” Dodger Manager Jim Tracy said Sunday.

Tracy insisted he made the move as much to provide Perez, Kazuhisa Ishii and Jeff Weaver with an additional day of rest as to accommodate Perez’s request. But Tracy called Perez’s desire to step up against a marquee opponent “very flattering.”

Hideo Nomo is scheduled to pitch Tuesday against Toronto in his first start since going on the disabled list last month with a split fingernail. Jose Lima will move into the rotation Wednesday and Ishii is to start Thursday. Perez will get his desired start against Boston on Friday.

“I want to pitch at Fenway because I haven’t pitched there yet and I think it would be fun,” Perez said. “It would be very nice to pitch in all the stadiums in baseball. The tradition there is good and I want to pitch there.”

The move also puts Perez (3-3) on schedule to pitch June 16 against the Baltimore Orioles, meaning the left-hander would miss the Dodgers’ first regular-season series against the New York Yankees the following weekend at Dodger Stadium.

“I don’t think there’s any difference between the teams,” Perez said of the Yankees and Red Sox. “They’re two good teams.”

But does Boston excite Perez more than Toronto?

“Of course,” he said. “It’s a good-hitting team.”

Perez said his request was not an indication that he was asking to become the Dodgers’ ace, “because Nomo’s a good pitcher, Weaver’s the same way. I just want to have the opportunity to pitch every five days no matter what. I’m not going to go there and say I’m the ace.”

Perez said Fenway’s Green Monster, the towering left-field wall that has inflated the earned-run averages of many left-handed pitchers, did not intimidate him.

“If you keep the ball down, if you pitch with command, it doesn’t matter if it’s 240 [feet] to the left-field wall,” he said.

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Lima, who has not yielded an earned run in 20 2/3 innings, including eight shutout innings in his last start, said he was pleased that Tracy had committed to him for at least three more starts.

“It feels good when they still believe in you,” said Lima, who is also scheduled to start June 15 against Baltimore and June 20 against the Yankees. “I hope I can pitch three quality starts and get an opportunity to start the rest of the year.”

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Tracy said Olmedo Saenz probably would be the designated hitter Tuesday when the Dodgers open their interleague series against Toronto at Skydome, with Jose Hernandez and Jayson Werth also in the lineup against left-hander Ted Lilly. Tracy said he also hoped to utilize Jason Grabowski and Robin Ventura at designated hitter in the six-game stretch at American League parks.