Injury frustrates LaRoche

Exactly a year after he made his major league debut with the Los Angeles Dodgers, 51s third baseman Andy LaRoche made his season debut in Las Vegas on Tuesday.

This was not the scenario LaRoche envisioned when he started spring training locked in a battle with Nomar Garciaparra for the Dodgers' starting third baseman's job.

But in a cruel twist of fate, LaRoche tore a ligament off the base of his right thumb one inning after Garciaparra injured his right wrist in the same spring training game March 7.

LaRoche was trying to catch a pickoff throw from 51s catcher Danny Ardoin, but the ball bounced off baserunner D'Angelo Jimenez and struck LaRoche on his throwing hand, sidelining him for close to two months.

"It was a freak injury," Las Vegas manager Lorenzo Bundy said.

Rated the best power hitter in the Dodgers organization and one of their top two prospects the past two years, LaRoche had surgery and worked hard to rehabilitate his injury, returning to the field three weeks ahead of schedule.

"Andy worked his butt off to get back," Bundy said. "Now he's here to get some at-bats, and hopefully we'll get him hot and get him out of here.

"Health-wise, it seems like he's fine. Now it's just a matter of timing. Hopefully, after 50 or 60 at-bats, he'll start to feel pretty comfortable and get it going pretty good."

LaRoche hit .318 (7-for-22) in six games with Double-A Jacksonville and is batting .238 (5-for-21) with two home runs and four RBIs in seven games for the 51s.

"Hopefully I won't be here very long," LaRoche said. "As soon as I get my timing, hopefully I'll be back up at L.A."

LaRoche went 2-for-4 with a walk and a run for Las Vegas in its 8-2 win over Memphis on Tuesday night at Cashman Field. He struck out in his first at-bat, then walked and grounded out before lining singles in his last two at-bats.

A couple of his throws to first base were low, though, and LaRoche said his thumb is still not 100 percent healthy.

"It's all right. It's coming along; I can get by with it," he said. "It's not 100 percent, but I can swing OK and I can throw the ball OK."

The 6-foot-1-inch, 225-pound slugger also sprained his left big toe in a recent game with Jacksonville and said it will take three weeks to heal.

LaRoche, who hit .295 with 90 home runs and 304 RBIs in his first four full minor league seasons, said he isn't sure how long it will take him to get back to full strength.

"It could be a week; it could be a month," he said. "But I know if I'm playing well, I don't have to be 100 percent. I could be 90 or 95 percent as long as I'm getting the job done, making plays and getting quality at-bats."

LaRoche broke his leg in 2003, when the Dodgers reportedly gave him a $1 million signing bonus.

LaRoche had surgery to repair a torn labrum in his shoulder after the 2006 season and battled a bulging disk in his back much of last year, but Bundy said he wouldn't label the infielder as "injury prone."

"I wouldn't call it injury prone, just a little bit of bad luck," he said. "We know the organization is still very high on Andy LaRoche."

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at (702) 383-0354 or tdewey@reviewjournal.com.