Anderson has happy return

Delighted to be back in a pennant race, Marlon Anderson said Thursday that he didn’t blame the Dodgers for designating him for assignment and eventually releasing him earlier this month.

Anderson was back at Dodger Stadium with the New York Mets, who called him up from triple-A New Orleans on Wednesday. He signed a minor league contract with the Mets on July 12.

Anderson said he wasn’t surprised that the Dodgers designated him to make room on the roster for reliever Chin-hui Tsao.

“I’ve been around this game too long to be surprised by anything,” Anderson said. “It’s a numbers game and they needed pitching. Their young guys were playing well and they didn’t want to send any of them down.”

But Anderson hinted that the Dodgers made a mistake in discarding him. Asked if his being expendable said something about the Dodgers’ young talent, he replied, “It speaks toward what they wanted to do.”

Anderson joined the Dodgers in a trade from Washington last season and was a key part of their run to the NL wild-card playoff berth, batting .375 with seven home runs and 15 runs batted in in 25 games.

But the 33-year-old utility player missed a significant part of this season recovering from elbow surgery and hit .231 in 26 at-bats.

“I had a great time over here with the Dodgers, great run last year in the playoffs,” he said. “It’s part of baseball. You move on and you get past it and come the next week, you have a chance to beat them.”

And he gets that chance with the Dodgers paying part of his salary. “Exactly,” he said. “I like it.”

Anderson wasted no time Thursday punishing the Dodgers. Starting in left field for the Mets, he had two hits and drove in two runs in the first three innings. The number of RBIs matched the number he had for the Dodgers this season.

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Randy Wolf is tentatively scheduled to make a rehabilitation start in San Bernardino next week, possibly Wednesday.

Two steps stand between Wolf and his brief stop at Class A. The first comes today when he throws from a mound for the first time since being put on the 15-day disabled list because of a sore shoulder on July 4.

Wolf expects to throw 20 pitches today and if he feels fine, he’ll have a full bullpen session Sunday.

“Obviously, I want it to be faster,” Wolf said. “It’s hard being on the DL. But I understand that you don’t want to rush back into it.”

Trainer Stan Conte said the purpose of today’s session would be to make sure Wolf doesn’t feel discomfort throwing on an incline. Wolf began throwing on flat ground last week and has experienced no pain.

Conte stressed that the rehab start was “subject to change” and that it was marked down in “light pencil with heavy eraser.” Wolf said visiting San Bernardino was necessary to build back his arm strength.

“I don’t think it’d be fair to myself or to the team for me to go out and have a 65-pitch count,” Wolf said.

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Hong-Chih Kuo threw on flat ground Thursday and could be pitching off a mound soon, Conte said.

dylan.hernandez@latimes.com