Damon Has L.A. on His Checklist

An impending free agent at the end of the season, Oakland Athletic leadoff-hitting center fielder Johnny Damon acknowledged Friday that the Dodgers are one of “six or seven teams” that he’s interested in playing for next year.

“I’m definitely going to check them out and definitely see what we can do,” said Damon, who added that his main concern at the moment is performing well for his current employers and that the Athletics will also be in the mix for his services.

“[The Dodgers] have an idea of what it takes to win,” Damon said. “I mean, they’re constantly trying to improve their team, constantly trying to keep their own players. They’re constantly moving forward. They’re going to be able to compete every year and that’s definitely a plus.”

Damon, 27, came to the Athletics from the Kansas City Royals in a three-team, nine-player trade on Jan. 8 after batting a career-high .327 with 46 stolen bases in 2000.

He struggled in the first half with Oakland, however, batting only .239 with 14 stolen bases.

“I know I left the hitter-friendly confines of Kansas City and came over here and it hasn’t been as nice, but I’m a lot happier,” Damon said. “I’m on a better team and guys are definitely going places. I wouldn’t call it disappointing. I’m disappointed that I haven’t gotten it going yet.

The expectations wore on Damon, who was also rumored to be wanted by the Dodgers.

“I’m not a guy who makes excuses or anything, but I wanted to definitely come in and make a big impression but I think, early on, I was taking way too many pitches and then I lost my aggressiveness at the plate,” Damon said. “My bunting was awful; I couldn’t even get sac bunts down or bunts for base hits so that’s about 20 points off my average. I kept battling and here we are now.

“I just want to make the A’s look like geniuses.”

The Dodgers put rookie utility player Hiram Bocachica (sprained right ankle) on the disabled list Friday and sent him back to Los Angeles but did not immediately fill his roster spot, in case the Dodgers need to fill it with a position player in the next two days.

Right-hander Eric Gagne will be called up from triple-A Las Vegas and rejoin the Dodgers in Pittsburgh to start against the Pirates on Monday.

The Dodgers traded a minor league pitcher for a minor league outfielder as they acquired McKay Christensen from the Chicago White Sox for left-hander Wade Parrish. Christensen, 25, will be assigned to triple-A Las Vegas.

Christensen, who was drafted sixth overall by the Angels in 1994, was batting .275 with seven home runs, 25 runs batted in and 17 stolen bases for triple-A Charlotte.

In parts of three big league seasons, Christensen has batted .197 in 67 games with one home run and seven RBIs. In 2000, he played in 32 games for Chicago and appeared in one American League Division Series game.

Parrish, 23, was a combined 5-2 with a 2.35 earned-run average at Class-A Vero Beach and Double-A Jacksonville.

TODAY

DODGERS’

LUKE PROKOPEC

(6-4, 4.18 ERA)

vs.

ATHLETICS’

BARRY ZITO

(6-6, 4.58 ERA)

Network Associates Coliseum, 1 p.m.

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

Update--Prokopec, who missed his last start because of a blister on his right (throwing) middle finger, will be pitching with an acrylic nail on the digit to ease the rubbing when he throws his slider. “It’s like bloody magic,” Prokopec said of the fake nail. The left-handed Zito’s 2.72 ERA last year was the lowest among major league rookies with 30 or more innings pitched and the lowest ERA by a rookie with at least 75 innings pitched in Oakland history. Zito, the Pacific 10 Conference pitcher of the year at USC in 1999, was the Athletics’ top draft pick, No. 9 overall, that summer. Last December, he played a toy soldier in the Oakland Ballet’s performance of “The Nutcracker.”