He’s a Role Player on a Roll

The approach hasn’t been altered.

Playing, not playing, “you go about your business the same way,” said Chad Kreuter, whose role changed May 30 when Todd Hundley injured a rib cage muscle while running between second and third bases against New York.

Since taking over the everyday catching job for Hundley, Kreuter is hitting .400 with two homers and six runs batted in.

So what?

“The way I put things in perspective, it doesn’t matter what I do at the plate for the next month or so, Todd’s going to have the job back,” Kreuter said Saturday night. “I know my role. I’d be lying to myself to say that if I hit .600 or .500 over the next month that I’d be the No. 1 guy. I’d be . . . putting pressure on myself to do something that’s not attainable anyway, and I’d not be getting my best effort.”

Instead, he has concentrated on handling the rigors of playing every day after a career largely spent in a reserve role.

“It’s more difficult not playing than playing,” he said, then laughed. “For a catcher, you feel like you’re falling off a truck when you catch once a week. [In practice] you can’t duplicate going back there and squatting 150-160 times, whatever the pitch count is.

“But as you play more, your body gets used to it. Then it becomes a little more like falling off a bike than a truck, a little less severe.”

*

Todd Hollandsworth, who has a hamstring injury, doesn’t appear to be improving and the Dodgers are considering putting him on the disabled list, perhaps as early as today and retroactive to a week ago.

“He’s been out a week, and it looks like it will be another 4-5 days before he’s even 80%,” Manager Davey Johnson said of Hollandsworth, who was injured May 3 against the Angels at Edison Field. “We’ll know more today. It’s definitely pulled. It’s more serious [than we thought].”

The decision to keep Hollandsworth on the active roster was in part predicated on the Dodgers playing at Texas earlier in the week in an interleague series in which the designated hitter was used and there were fewer opportunities for pinch-hitters. But they have Arizona and St. Louis ahead, and they don’t want to play those games with a 24-man roster.

Though it won’t help them in the outfield, one answer might be to activate third baseman Adrian Beltre, who is due to come off the disabled list and ran the bases Saturday. He also hit six consecutive balls over the left-field wall in batting practice.

Beltre has been out because of a strained right hamstring.

*

Also ahead is a decision on Orel Hershiser, who pitched Friday night for San Bernardino and “threw 73 pitches, more than I really wanted him to,” Johnson said.

Because of the pitch count, the decision on Hershiser probably won’t be made until early in the week because he wouldn’t be available to pitch in any role for the Dodgers until Wednesday or so.

In three starts at Class-A San Bernardino, Hershiser is 1-0 with a 3.06 earned-run average.

“I talked to him today . . . and Orel suggested we move him up to double-A,” Johnson cracked.

TODAY

DODGERS’

ERIC GAGNE

(1-3, 3.77 ERA)

vs.

ATHLETICS’

KEVIN APPIER

(5-3, 4.21)

Dodger Stadium, 1

TV--Fox Sports Net 2

Radio--KXTA (1150), KWKW (1330)

* Update--Gagne pitched six-plus innings of shutout baseball at Texas on Tuesday in earning his first victory of the season, and what was more important, he kept the ball in the park. In his last seven games, he has given up 15 runs, 12 of them via the home run ball (seven solo, a two-run homer and a three-run shot). Appier has pitched in 303 big league games, has started 291 of them, and will face the Dodgers for the first time. He is 2-1 with a 4.39 ERA in five starts since coming off the disabled list on May 13 and had no decision Monday in a 3-2 win at San Diego.

* Tickets--(323) 224-1HIT.