Guerrero sits out for a day

It’s rare for Vladimir Guerrero to come out of the lineup; he has been on the disabled list only twice since the start of the 1998 season and sat out only two games last April after being hit on the left wrist by Josh Beckett’s 96-mph fastball.

So, for the slugger to agree he needed Thursday night off, his swollen right index finger had to be hurting.

But Guerrero said the injury, suffered on Wednesday’s fifth-inning groundout, would sideline him for only one game and is nothing to be concerned about.

“I got hit by a pitch in Class A in 1996, and since then, when I start taking a lot of swings, at some point in the year it swells up,” Guerrero said through an interpreter. “Once it swells up, it won’t go down. It’s something I’ve lived with my whole career. I play with it.”

Guerrero, who did not have X-rays or take batting practice Thursday, was surprised how early this season the finger flared up.

“Usually, it happens after 100 at-bats,” said Guerrero, who is hitting .277 in 65 at-bats. “This year, it acted up early. . . . When these things happen, the best thing to do is to take a day off. Hopefully, it will just be a day.”

Guerrero remained in Wednesday’s game, aggravating the injury during a seventh-inning at-bat.

Guerrero does not wear batting gloves or padding on his hands when he hits; he just tapes his fingers. Because he uses a generous amount of pine tar, his hands sometimes stick too tightly to the bat.

“He generates so much force with that bat, and if your hands can’t release on the bat . . . all that force is staying on your finger,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “It’s almost like when you’re on artificial turf and you go to plant and your foot sticks because it’s too sticky and you turn and tweak a knee.”

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John Lackey said he “felt fine” Thursday, which might have been just as significant as the 40-pitch warmup and 20-pitch simulated game the injured right-hander threw Wednesday.

It wasn’t until a day after a bullpen workout in March that the pain in Lackey’s elbow became so unbearable he couldn’t throw. He was diagnosed with a triceps strain.

Lackey is scheduled to throw another simulated game Saturday or Sunday and, barring a setback, will start a rehabilitation assignment, probably at Class-A Rancho Cucamonga, next week.

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Howie Kendrick has begun taking batting practice and will try to jog today, but if his strained left hamstring, suffered Sunday in Seattle, isn’t healed by Tuesday, the second baseman probably will go on the disabled list.

“If he’s not able to run at a good pace by the time we get to Boston, we’ll make the determination,” Scioscia said. “We’re getting into some chilly weather. He’s going to need to be at a certain level before we’re going to feel comfortable putting him back out there.”

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Scioscia, on the Mike Scioscia bobblehead dolls given to fans Thursday night: “Half of [the materials] were recycled plastic from Lake Havasu, and the other half was from the Simi Valley landfill. They had to find enough plastic to put the bobbleheads together.”

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mike.digiovanna@latimes.com