Rusty DiSarcina Is Content to Return to Work in Class A

Gary DiSarcina got his first hit of the season. He started his first double play. He even booted his first ground ball.

DiSarcina, out since Feb 21 because of a broken bone in his left forearm, made his season debut in a rehabilitation start for Class-A Lake Elsinore Thursday and wasn’t quite ready to declare himself fit.

“I’m definitely where I should be right now . . . A ball,” DiSarcina said. “I can’t take that stuff [to Anaheim]. It felt like I just picked up the game.”

DiSarcina played four innings and hit twice before being lifted for a pinch-hitter in the fourth. He grounded a single into left in the first inning and walked in the second.

“It won’t take Gary as long to get ready as it would Tim Salmon or Mo Vaughn,” said Angel hitting coach Rod Carew, who observed DiSarcina Thursday. “Those guys have power swings. Gary is a line drive hitter.”

He was not especially sharp in the field. DiSarcina started a double play in the second. High Desert’s James Rinne, the next batter, then hit a high chopper that DiSarcina charged then booted.

“That just shows how rusty I am,” DiSarcina said. “I should have had that on the big hop. I am just a click behind. I have to get to the point where I’m not thinking about my arm out there.

“I wasn’t worried about batting. I was concerned about check swings. I had one of those tonight and it felt OK. I was worried about sliding because I drop my left arm down. I got to do that tonight.”

DiSarcina will play for Lake Elsinore through the weekend, then go to double-A Erie when the Angels go on an East Coast trip next week.

“I’ll have a better idea how long it will be [before I’m ready] when I get to Erie,” DiSarcina said. “This was like the first day of spring training. You forget how much standing around you have to do and how you have to be mentally into every pitch. I was on base twice tonight and I’m winded. It felt like I haven’t played in nine months, and I haven’t.”