SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. Nat Moore Jersey . -- While much of the nation is buried in snow, glazed by ice or just plain shivering in the cold, its time to play ball in the desert. Spring training officially began Thursday when Arizona Diamondbacks pitchers and catchers reported, with their first workout set for Friday. On the other side of suburban Phoenix, in Glendale, Los Angeles Dodgers pitchers and catchers report on Saturday. Full-squad workouts for both teams begin next week. The Diamondbacks and Dodgers get an early start because they will open the MLB season with a two-game series in Australia on March 22-23. The rest of the teams begin workouts next week at their spring training haunts in Arizona and Florida. Arizonas reporting date signals the beginning of preparation for a season that wont end until the World Series eight months from now. The Diamondbacks are coming off consecutive 81-81 seasons and face the prospect, like the rest of the NL West, of trying to compete with the cash- and pitching-rich Dodgers. Arizona wanted to add a veteran starter in the off-season and still may. A person with knowledge of the situation said Thursday that the Diamondbacks were talking with representatives of Bronson Arroyo with the possibility of landing the 36-year-old right-hander. The person asked not to be identified because the talks had not been made public. The Dodgers and Baltimore Orioles also reportedly have interest in Arroyo. If no changes are made, the Diamondbacks rotation is expected to include left-handers Patrick Corbin and Wade Miley and right-handers Trevor Cahill and Brandon McCarthy. Young right-hander Randall Delgado and top minor league prospect Archie Bradley could vie for the other rotation spot. Diamondbacks players went through informal workouts in relatively chilly weather, at least by Arizona standards, on Thursday. Temperatures were in the low 60s but were expected to rise to the high 70s over the weekend. Kirk Gibson is entering his fourth season as manager and earlier this week got an extension of his contract, which had been set to expire this year. He said the early start to spring training will mean a larger gap between the start of full-squad workouts and the beginning of spring games. "Well come in on the 11th and our first games on the 26th," he said. "It gives us a challenge. We need to get our pitchers ready to be ready to go on March 22." After the long trip to Australia, the Diamondbacks and Dodgers will come back to Arizona to complete spring training before their stateside regular-season openers. "The seasons going to be a little longer, " Gibson said, "but if you look at the other people that have played abroad early, I think theres 10 teams that went and five of them have went to post-season play." Even though its an early start to spring training, McCarthy said players are more than ready to get back at it. "In the last month is when you start to hit that boredom point," he said. "Youre done with the off-season, youre sick of your loved ones, you want to get out of your house. Now it turns real and you kind of get back to work." The other significant addition to the Diamondbacks pitching staff is Addison Reed, The 25-year-old right-hander had 69 saves the last two seasons with the Chicago White Sox, 40 last year. Arizona acquired him from the White Sox for third baseman Matt Davidson. Reed hasnt been anointed the Arizona closer yet, though, facing competition from the likes of J.J. Putz, David Hernandez and Brad Zeigler. "Obviously everybody knows that I want to close. Its the only thing Ive ever wanted to do," Reed said, "but Im here and whatever they have me do is what Ill do and Ill be happy to. As long as Im out there throwing, Ill be a happy guy." McCarthy said that a core group of Arizona players plans to take a bigger leadership role in the coming year. "I think theres a group of guys here that know exactly what they want," he said. "Last year I think we were kind of getting there but we didnt have that true leadership that really came through. Its the one thing Ive seen just in talking to guys so far, that heres an idea of exactly what we want and I think we know how to implement that now. "Youre going to see a clubhouse of guys that go out of their way to get things the way they want it, to set an attitude the way they want it." Cameron Wake Youth Jersey . After a first half in which he thought "the lid was on the basket," the Toronto Raptors coach watched his squad mount a second half surge to defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers 98-91. Jason Taylor Womens Jersey . Not that Durant cared. The only streak he cares about is still intact. http://www.dolphinsrookiestore.com/Customized/ . Johansen scored twice and Derek MacKenzie, Brandon Dubinsky and Cam Atkinson also had goals to lead the Blue Jackets to a 5-2 victory over the Washington Capitals on Thursday night, ending a three-game losing skid.DENVER -- Shortstop Pete Kozma could see the situation coming, his chance in the 15th inning to give the St. Louis Cardinals a hard-fought victory. The Colorado Rockies intentionally walked Yadier Molina with one out and runners on first and third to load the bases for Kozma. Batting against Rob Scahill, Kozma grounded into a double play. Corey Dickersons RBI triple with one out in the bottom of the inning gave the Rockies a 7-6 victory in a marathon that lasted 5 hours, 9 minutes. "Hes a good sinkerball pitcher," Kozma said of Scahill. "Faced him a couple times in the minors. I was just looking for something to get up and drive. I had something to hit and didnt do anything with it." What Kozma did was fire his helmet to the ground in disgust. He entered the game hitting just .218 but with a .324 average with runners in scoring position. It is rare for Kozma to show emotion, but this was not just any clutch situation. "Game on the line," Kozma said. "The game lasts six hours or however long it lasted. Everybody was feeling something, especially at that point." Charlie Blackmon finished with four hits and Troy Tulowitzki and Todd Helton homered for the Rockies in tying the second-longest game in Coors Field history. Matt Holliday had three hits for the Cardinals, who had their NL Central Division lead over Pittsburgh trimmed to one game. The Pirates beat San Diego 10-1 on Thursday. DJ LeMahieu started the winning rally with a one-out single to right. Dickerson then drilled a line drive into the right-field corner as LeMahieu rounded the bases. The relay from second baseman Matt Carpenter beat LeMahieu but catcher Molina couldnt control the ball as LeMahieu crawled to touch home. It was Dickersons second triple of the game and sixth of the season. In the first inning, Helton tagged out Carpenter at first with the hidden-ball trick. After Roy Oswalt threw to first, Helton feigned a throw back to the mound and tagged Carpenter when he stepped off the bag to end the inning. The teams traded late-game rallies. Helton, who struck out with the bases loaded to end Wednesdays game, turned on Edward Mujicas fastball Thursday, drove an 0-1 offering into the Rockies bullpeen to lead off the ninth and tie it at 6-all. Miami Dolphins Jerseys. It was Mujicas fourth blown save in 41 chances. Holliday hit his former team hard, going 8 for 21 with a home run, four walks and four RBIs in the series. He reached base in six straight at-bats Thursday and was poised to be the hero with his RBI single in the ninth before Helton tied it with his 14th home run of the season. It was part of a back-and-forth that saw the Cardinals rally from four runs down but blow two late leads. Trailing 4-0, the Cardinals got within a run in the fourth. Oswalt walked the first two batters, Carlos Beltran singled to score Jon Jay and Holliday came home on a sacrifice fly. Tony Cruz doubled off the wall in left to make it 4-3. Holliday tied it at 4-all with an RBI single in the fifth. David Freese gave the Cardinals a 5-4 lead in the eighth with an RBI double to centre, but Colorado tied it in the bottom of the inning on Dickersons two-out triple. Helton helped the Rockies take an early lead with a leadoff double in the second, his 588th career two-bagger. He moved to third on Charlie Culbersons infield single and scored on Yorvit Torrealbas blooper to right. Culberson scored on a double play to make it 2-0. Tulowitzkis two-run homer in the third made it 4-0. It was his 23rd of the season. Cardinals starter Michael Wacha had a curious Coors Field debut. He allowed four runs and 12 hits but no walks with seven strikeouts in 4 2-3 innings. "Plain and simple, I gave up too many hits," Wacha said. "And I didnt put our team in a good position to win a game. I feel it all starts with the starting pitcher, and I just wasnt able to get guys out there for a while and gave up entirely way too many hits." NOTES: Cardinals 1B Matt Adams (right elbow soreness) did not start but came into the game as a defensive replacement in the eighth. He singled in the ninth and was replaced by a pinch-runner. ... Rockies OF Michael Cuddyer (left wrist, forearm) was out of the lineup but hopes to play Friday. ... RHP Shelby Miller (14-9) will open the Cardinals weekend series in Milwaukee on Friday. ... RHP Jhoulys Chacin (13-9) will start the first game of Colorados series against Arizona on Friday. ' ' '