LOS ANGELES -- Chicago Cubs pitcher Kerry Wood threw 30 pitches off the mound on Monday, his second time off a mound in three days, and said the session went well.

Wood has not pitched in a game since April 30, when he went three innings against Houston before having to leave with soreness in his right shoulder. Wood has been doing exercises and building up arm strength since then, and threw 15 pitches off the mound for the first time on Saturday at Wrigley Field. On Monday, he extended his session.

"It's nice to get to the point now -- other than all the little drills we're doing, and the exercises and strength stuff and playing catch -- it's nice to stretch it out and get up on the mound," Wood said. "It feels pretty good."

Wood still can't set a time for his return. He's ahead of where he would be at the start of Spring Training because of all the throwing he did the early part of the season. This year, Wood totaled 26 1/3 innings over five starts before he had to be shut down.

"I'm slowly getting there," he said.

Meanwhile, Mark Prior continued to receive treatment for the compressed fracture in his right elbow he suffered Friday after being hit by a line drive.

"Everything right now depends on when the inflammation goes down," Cubs manager Dusty Baker said Monday. "The swelling has gone down pretty good, and he has some mobility where before he had no mobility. For a few short days, he's doing pretty good."

Don't look for Prior on the mound yet.

"We're not even close to that yet," Baker said. "We're just happy the inflammation is going down. He's a little ways from throwing."

Start me up: Left-hander John Koronka will make his Major League debut on Wednesday, subbing for Prior in the rotation. Koronka was 3-5 with a 5.05 ERA in nine games at Triple-A Iowa, and has given up 26 earned runs on 49 hits and 20 walks over 46 1/3 innings. He's also struck out 34.

"He's the best candidate to take us deep in a game and he's throwing the ball pretty good," Baker said of the lefty. "We're in [a stretch of 20 consecutive games], and I didn't want to tear up my bullpen."

Right-hander Jerome Williams, acquired from San Francisco in the LaTroy Hawkins deal on Saturday, was to start for Iowa on Tuesday.

"He's not quite in tip-top shape yet. He's got a few starts to go," Baker said.

Do the Cubs need to go outside and get another starting pitcher?

"When you've got a choice, you don't want to destroy the morale in the organization," Baker said. "You'd rather go inside the organization first. We're at 40 on the 40-man roster. There's a lot more that goes into it than 'Go get somebody else.'"

Triple threat: If the season ended Monday, Derrek Lee would win baseball's Triple Crown. Lee started the week with a .366 batting average, 16 home runs and 46 RBIs, all tops in the National League. The Cubs have never had a Triple Crown winner.

"It's a long ways from when we traded [Hee-Seop] Choi," Baker said of the former Cubs first baseman, now with the Dodgers. "Choi had a good start and Derrek Lee didn't [in 2004]. Sometimes you have to wait, which is not a good word in sports."

Familiar faces: Dodger Stadium is a favorite place for outfielder Todd Hollandsworth, who won the National League Rookie of the Year with the Dodgers in 1996 when he batted .291 with 12 homers and 59 RBIs. He played for the Dodgers until he was traded in 2000 to Colorado.

"I played here six years, so certainly there are good memories," Hollandsworth said. "The day I got traded in 2000 to go to Colorado was a bittersweet day. There were so many friends and coaches and people that I knew for a long period of time -- I knew their children and watched their kids growing up. But at the time, I was ready for a change and looking for an opportunity and I was ready to move on.

"Half of my career was here," Hollandsworth said. "It all started here for me."

The personnel has changed at Dodger Stadium and on the team, and so has the ballpark.

"If you played at Wrigley 20 years ago and you walked in there, there are things that trigger memories that are still there," Hollandsworth said. "That clubhouse over there [at Dodger Stadium] has been completely renovated, the trainers room been completely renovated, the weight room completely renovated, the dugouts are completey different, it's a completely different playing surface. The structure is the same.

"It's almost like my greatest memories are when I pulled into the stadium," he said. "That's what you get at Wrigley that you don't get here. This is still a very special place to me."

Baker has plenty of memories here, too, having played for the Dodgers from 1976-83.

"I've got good memories from the time I was a kid, watching Sandy Koufax and [Don] Drysdale and Maury Wills, Tommy Davis," he said. "Tommy was my hero. That's why I wear No. 12. As a kid playing in the backyard with my brother, I was always Tommy Davis."

All-Star: Neifi Perez is not on the National League All-Star ballot, but the shortstop is a definite write-in candidate. Perez has filled in well for Nomar Garciaparra, who injured his groin on April 20.

"He's rebuilt his value as an everyday player," Baker said of Perez, who was batting .307 with five homers and 20 RBIs. "I tell guys who come here, the one thing that happens is either they establish their value or add more value by the end of the year."

Garciaparra was expected to join the Cubs in Los Angeles this week to be examined by athletic trainer Mark O'Neal.

Minor matters: Scott McClain hit a game-winning two-run homer in the ninth to help Iowa beat Round Rock, 4-3. Phil Norton threw 4 1/3 scoreless innings for Iowa. Mike Fontenot also hit a home run, his fourth of the year. ... Renyel Pinto gave up two runs, one earned, on three hits over 5 2/3 innings and struck out six in Double-A West Tenn's 3-2 win over Birmingham. Nate Frese went 2-for-3 and hit the game-winning solo homer in the bottom of the eighth. ... Sean Marshall and Randy Wells combined to pitch a two-hit shutout in Class A Daytona's 3-0 win over Sarasota. ... Ryan Harvey went 2-for-5 with a pair of homers and four RBIs for Class A Peoria in a 13-3 win over Clinton.

On deck: Carlos Zambrano will start Tuesday for the Cubs against the Dodgers in Game 2 of this three-game series. Zambrano is 1-2 with a 4.85 ERA on the road so far. Opponents are batting .211 against him, and the right-hander ranks among the NL leaders with 59 strikeouts.

Carrie Muskat is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.