Hollandsworth on Disabled List

The Dodgers took two MRIs Monday and all they got back Tuesday was bad news.

Outfielder Todd Hollandsworth has a severe bruise of the joint in his right elbow. He has been placed in a soft cast and put on the disabled list.

Second baseman Tripp Cromer has a partially torn ligament in his right elbow and isn’t expected back for a couple of weeks at the earliest.

Hollandsworth was originally injured Aug. 1 on a play that could easily have been avoided. Coming into home plate at Chicago’s Wrigley Field, Hollandsworth didn’t slide when he should have. He was tagged out at the plate, fell awkwardly, broke his fall with his right arm and wound up with a fracture near the right elbow.

Hollandsworth, last year’s NL Rookie of the Year, spent 15 days on the disabled list, went on a two-game rehabilitation assignment to the Dodgers’ Class-A team in San Bernardino and was written into Sunday’s lineup.

During batting practice, however, Hollandsworth complained of sharp pain in the elbow area and had to be scratched.

But, according to trainer Charlie Strasser, the bruise is a totally separate injury from the fracture.

“It happened somewhere between San Bernardino and batting practice at Dodger Stadium,” Strasser said.

Cromer first felt something wrong in his elbow in late July. An MRI in Chicago at the beginning of the month did not show a problem.

But after weeks without improvement, the Dodgers ordered a second test.

“Those tests are not 100 percent accurate,” said Strasser in explaining why the team ordered a second one.

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Replacing Hollandsworth on the roster is infielder Juan Castro. Castro was on the disabled list earlier this season because of a sprained right knee.

When recalled, he was playing for the Dodgers’ triple-A Albuquerque farm team for whom he was hitting .307 with a home run and 11 RBIs.

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The Dodgers sent second baseman Adam Riggs to Albuquerque to make room for right-hander Ramon Martinez, who has been taken off the disabled list and will start tonight.

Riggs batted .200 in six games, and with the arrival of infielders Castro and Eric Young, there was no need for another second baseman.

With the newest Dodgers, Young and Otis Nixon, batting 1-2 in the Dodger lineup, Brett Butler, who formerly batted in one of those two positions, hit eighth Tuesday night.

Has he ever hit that low in the order before?

“Never,” Butler said, “not even in Little League.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

TODAY’S GAME

DODGERS’ RAMON MARTINEZ (6-3, 3.42 ERA) vs. METS’ BOBBY JONES (13-7, 3.61 ERA)

Shea Stadium, 4:40 p.m.

TV--ESPN. Radio--KABC (790), KWKW (1330).

* Update--Martinez makes his first start since mid-June, when it was discovered he had a small tear in the rotator cuff in his right shoulder. As it turned out, surgery wasn’t necessary, but a long recovery period was. Martinez had five rehabilitation assignments, extending himself more and more each time. Not once did he experience the pain he had first felt from the tear. Executive vice-president Fred Claire says that if it turns out Martinez has come back too soon, the club will either press reliever Darren Dreifort into starting duty or recall left-hander Dennis Reyes.