BASEBALL DAILY REPORT : DODGERS : Piazza Feeling Optimistic About Injury

There is no timetable for Mike Piazza’s return to the lineup, but things appear to be moving in the right direction. He will not accompany the team today to New York, but will remain in Los Angeles until Thursday, when he will get the cast off his hand.

“I will join the team Thursday night in New York and then start rehabilitating over the weekend in Montreal, and then we will just see,” Piazza said. “We haven’t talked at all about when I might return, but I’m betting it’s going to feel good.”

Piazza is eligible to come off the disabled list on Friday, when the Dodgers begin a three-game series against the Montreal Expos at Olympic Stadium. He was placed on the 15-day disabled list after tearing a ligament in his left thumb during a game May 10. Since then, the offense has struggled.

“Hopefully, I like to think that when I come back it will give the team a bit of a boost, but we all have to put it together. It’s not going to be just me. “

Piazza says there has been no talk about a minor-league rehabilitation stint.

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The Dodgers, who have lost eight of their last nine games, are about to embark on an East-coast swing that traditionally has been a difficult trip. But Eric Karros says it doesn’t matter where they play, if they continue to play the way they have. “I don’t think some of these guys [younger players] even know about what it’s been like on this trip,” he said. “It doesn’t matter where we are going.”

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Manager Tom Lasorda has 1,490 career victories as a major league manager, and needs one more to tie for 14th on the all-time list with Clark Griffith. He has been trying to get it for six games.