Sheffield Out a Few Days

Gary Sheffield’s sprained right ankle will keep him out of the Dodger lineup until at least Friday, the left fielder said before Tuesday night’s game.

Sheffield rolled the ankle over second base while sliding, trying to break up a double play in the 11th inning of the Dodgers’ 14-inning 4-3 victory over the Cincinnati Reds Monday night.

“The way [Dr. Frank Jobe] put those X-rays up on the board, I thought there was something [seriously] wrong because he kept looking at them and then he told me to come sit on the table. It kind of scared me a little bit,” Sheffield said. “But he just said I just pulled the ligaments again and stretched them out even more than I did the first time.”

Though it is the third time this season Sheffield has twisted his right ankle, it is the first time he has sat out a game because of the injury.

On April 8 at Shea Stadium, he tripped on the warning track chasing a fly ball and on May 1 at Dodger Stadium, he stepped on a ball under the tarp that covers home plate during batting practice.

Monday night, Sheffield was helped off the field and left Dodger Stadium on crutches. He returned Tuesday afternoon walking on it with a limp, and a brace on the ankle.

*

The Dodgers, trying to get their bearings after playing 12 games in 14 days in four cities and flying cross-country the night before, were sluggish for most of Monday night’s game.

The Dodgers managed only two hits through five innings and blew a two-run lead before getting a break in the 14th inning, when Cincinnati catcher Eddie Taubensee failed to touch home plate, allowing Todd Hundley to score the winning run from third in front of what was left of a crowd of 31,000.

Cincinnati reliever Manny Aybar walked Hundley to start the 14th. After Kevin Elster sacrificed him to second, a wild pitch to pinch-hitter Chad Kreuter allowed Hundley to move to third.

Kreuter walked, and moved to second on another wild pitch by Aybar. Todd Hollandsworth was walked intentionally before Mark Grudzielanek grounded to Barry Larkin at short. After Taubensee leaped to catch Larkin’s throw, he did not touch home plate--according to home plate umpire Dan Iassogna--as Hundley slid across it, ending the game at 4 hours, 35 minutes.

*

Juan Castro knew his days of wearing Dodger blue were numbered as spring training came to a close. The sweet-fielding but weak-hitting shortstop was the odd man out, what with Alex Cora having already been shipped to triple-A Albuquerque and Kevin Elster bringing a power-hitting dimension to the bottom of the Dodger lineup.

So it was no April Fool’s joke when the Dodgers sent Castro to the Cincinnati Reds for a player to be named later in an April 1 trade.

“It was hard to leave, but I’m with a good team and I’m very happy,” Castro said in Spanish. “Things are very good and I’m very happy, very happy. It’s a good situation for me and I’m able to play at this [major league] level.”

Castro, 27, and a native of Mexico, had spent his entire five-year career with the Dodgers and had a .974 fielding percentage entering this season. But he was hitting only .188 in his major league career.

With the Reds, he began the season at triple-A Louisville, where he batted .317 in 19 games.

But Castro was promoted to Cincinnati on April 28, a week after shortstop Larkin went on the disabled list because of an injured finger.

With Larkin on the disabled list, Castro made nine starts at short. He is batting 216 with a home run and four runs batted.

TONIGHT

DODGERS’

CHAN HO PARK

(4-3, 4.89 ERA)

vs.

REDS’

STEVE PARRIS

(2-6, 5.63 ERA)

Dodger Stadium, 7 p.m.

TV--ESPN and Fox Sports Net 2

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

* Update--Park has faced the Reds twice this season, going 1-1 with a 2.25 ERA. He lost to the Reds, 5-3, at Dodger Stadium on April 16 and was given massive run support on April 22 at Cinergy Field, a 16-2 thumping of Cincinnati. Parris is making his third start against the Dodgers this year, having gone 1-1 with a 6.75 ERA. He beat Park on April 16 and lost to the Dodgers, 9-2, on April 21.