Baseball: Pettitte admits HGH use

Andy Pettitte used human growth hormone to recover from an elbow injury in 2002, the New York Yankees pitcher admitted two days after he was cited in the Mitchell Report.

Pettitte said he tried HGH on two occasions, stressing he did it to heal faster and not enhance his performance. He emphasized he never used steroids.

“If what I did was an error in judgment on my part, I apologize,” Pettitte said Saturday in a statement released by his agent. “I accept responsibility for those two days.”

On Thursday, Pettitte was among more than 80 players named by former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell’s investigation into steroids and performance-enhancing drugs.

Pettitte had not commented publicly on the allegations.

Pettitte asked the trainer he shared with Roger Clemens, Brian McNamee, to help him with HGH while on the disabled list early in the 2002 season, the report said. McNamee recalled injecting Pettitte two to four times, Mitchell said.

HGH wasn’t banned by baseball until January 2005.

“In 2002 I was injured. I had heard that human growth hormone could promote faster healing for my elbow,” Pettitte said in the statement released to the Associated Press by agent Randy Hendricks.

“I felt an obligation to get back to my team as soon as possible. For this reason, and only this reason, for two days I tried human growth hormone.”

Cabrera denies use

Former Arizona Diamondbacks player Alex Cabrera denied ever using steroids after his name appeared in the Mitchell Report.

The report chronicles the discovery of a bottle containing steroids in the Diamondbacks clubhouse in September 2000. A clubhouse employee found the bottle and several hundred pills in a package that had been mailed to Cabrera, according to the report.

“I couldn’t have used the substances that are identified,” Cabrera said. “I never had possession of the alleged box that supposedly contained the pharmaceutical drugs.”

Dodgers land Kuroda

Fulfilling one of their major off-season goals, the Los Angeles Dodgers agreed to terms with Japanese free-agent right-hander Hiroki Kuroda on a three-year, $35.2 million contract. Kuroda spent the past 11 seasons with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp of the Japanese Central League, where he had a 103-89 record and 3.69 ERA in 271 games. He went 12-8 with a 3.56 ERA in 26 games last season.

Edmonds pumped

It’s official. Jim Edmonds is returning to Southern California after eight seasons in the Midwest.

The San Diego Padres obtained the 37-year-old Edmonds and $2 million from the Cardinals in exchange for minor league third baseman David Freese.