Smoltz visits with Braves before golf with Tiger

Lake Buena Vista, Fla. — John Smoltz isn’t expected to pitch for Boston until June, but the (ex-) Braves icon didn’t pass up a chance to visit with some former teammates and manager Bobby Cox on Monday when the Red Sox came to Disney’s Wide World of Sports.

Smoltz, who’s rehabbing from June shoulder surgery, worked out at Champion Stadium before the Braves’ 4-3 win against Boston, and planned to spend the afternoon golfing with his pal Tiger Woods.

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AP

Kenshin Kawakami was charged with four hits and two runs in six innings, with two walks and four strikeouts against the Red Sox Monday.

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“It’s weird,” Smoltz said of returning to visit the Braves clubhouse, where his gregarious personality and booming voice were dominant features for so long before this spring.

“Any time you’ve been somewhere and known a lot of guys — I’ve known Chipper [Jones] forever and known [Tom] Glavine forever — you miss it. You go back to all the times you had.

“I’ll always be a part of it. But now, more or less, for it to work for me, you move on.”

After pitching for only the Braves in his previous 20 major league seasons, Smoltz jumped to the Red Sox in January, signing a guaranteed $5.5 million contract that could be worth up to about $10 million with performance incentives.

The guaranteed portion of the Braves’ offer was less than half as much. Smoltz wasn’t pleased by quotes attributed to Braves officials following his decision to sign with Boston.

He has expressed that displeasure in several interviews since the decision. But Monday, Smoltz, who turns 42 in May, sounded content.

“I’m fine,” he said. “I really am. I’m on a whole new plan, in a whole new situation. You get remnants of … I miss the heck out of Orlando. It’s a great place. Any time you spend a lot of time somewhere, it’s great to reminisce.

“But’s it’s going to be like opposites — I’m not in the same league, not in the same division, so it’s not going to be anything other than a whole new challenge for me. And given the circumstances, now that I’m two months removed, I think of what could have been, and I could be doing nothing right now, realistically.

“So given the way things happened, it’s been a great transition. It really has. And they [Red Sox] have made it great.”

Braves win all-Japanese matchup

Garret Anderson had two hits in his second game back from a calf strain, and Brooks Conrad’s 10th-inning double drove in the winning run, after Martin Prado’s tying two-out RBI single in the ninth.

Lefty Eric O’Flaherty struck out four of the six batters he faced, and Mke Gonzalez struck out all three he faced in the ninth to help ease some of the Braves’ recent bullpen concerns.

But let’s be clear: Most of the attention Monday was focused squarely on starting pitchers Kenshin Kawakami of the Braves and Daisuke Matsuzaka of the Red Sox.

The former Japanese league stars pitched a solid five innings apiece in a matchup that drew about 50 members of the Japanese media. There were more Red Sox fans than Braves fans in the sellout crowd of 10,824.

Kawakami was charged with four hits and two runs in six innings, with two walks and four strikeouts. “My body might feel a little tired, but I feel like pitched well today,” he said through a translator. “When there’s so much more Japanese media than usual, you feel a little more excited than usual.”

Kawakami buckled several Boston hitters’ knees with his slow curveball. And though it was spring training, Cox was pleased to see the performance from the 33-year-old right-hander known as a big-game pitcher in Japan. “With a packed house like that and that matchup, yeah,” Cox said. “He can rise to the occasion. You can see it in him.”

Matsuzaka gave up two runs (one earned), two hits and three walks with two strikeouts in his first Grapefruit League start, after helping Japan win the World Baseball Classic.

Morton to disabled list

Pitcher Charlie Morton was placed on the 15-day disabled list after missing most of spring training with a strained oblique muscle in his left side. He’s rebuilding arm strength and wouldn’t have been ready for the beginning of the season. Morton will be assigned to Class AAA Gwinnett County.