Green Will Skip the Derby

All-Star right fielder Shawn Green has been on the fence all week, unable to decide whether to participate in Monday’s home run derby in Milwaukee. Saturday, Manager Jim Tracy and the Dodgers nudged him off it.

Green, who sat out two games after suffering a jammed left thumb June 29 but has played the past four games with the injury, will not join Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, et al in the home run contest.

“That thumb needs extra time to mend, and I would hate to see something funky happen in the home run derby,” Tracy said. “To me, it doesn’t seem to make sense to take a chance. We talked to him about it, and I said I’d rather he didn’t push it. I don’t want it to be bothering him Thursday [when the Dodgers open the second half with a four-game series against Arizona].”

Green is tied for third in the National League with 26 home runs, four of them in his record-setting game in Milwaukee’s Miller Park on May 23.

“I’d love to do it, but it’s smart not to do it,” Green said. “The home run derby is the most enjoyable event of the All-Star game, but in the grand scheme of things, it has no meaning. It would be stupid to do it if you’re going to get hurt.”

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Reserve catcher David Ross was hitless in three at-bats with a walk Saturday, but his first major league start was anything but a failure.

Ross, filling in for starter Paul Lo Duca, did a solid job of handling starter Hideo Nomo, whose split-fingered fastball can baffle the most experienced of catchers, as well as relievers Giovanni Carrara, Jesse Orosco, Paul Quantrill and Eric Gagne.

He also threw out Edgar Renteria attempting to steal second base to end the seventh inning, sprinting off the field and pounding high-fives into the hands of his teammates in the dugout.

“I got excited, I had a little adrenaline rush,” said Ross, who will be sent back to triple-A Las Vegas when Chad Kreuter is activated Thursday. “Once I got used to Nomo’s splitter and got the nerves out of the way in the first inning, I was fine. I wished I could have helped out at the plate a bit, but that’s not what I’m here for.”

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Though he had only two plate appearances Saturday, Lo Duca had two singles, giving him nine multi-hit games in his last 12 games played.... With Odalis Perez (10-4) and Kazuhisa Ishii (11-5), the Dodgers have two starters entering the All-Star break with 10 or more wins for the first time since 1977, when four Dodgers--Doug Rau (11-1), Tommy John (10-4), Don Sutton (10-4) and Rick Rhoden (10-6)--reached double figures before the break.

TODAY

DODGERS’

OMAR DAAL

(7-3, 3.39 ERA)

vs.

CARDINALS’

TBA

Busch Stadium, 11 a.m. PDT

TV--Channel 13. Radio--KXTA (1150), KWKW (1330).

Update--After losing three consecutive games and giving up 21 earned runs in 16 1/3 innings, Daal has won his last three starts, giving up three earned runs in 17 innings. Struggling left-hander Bud Smith (0-5) was scheduled to start for the Cardinals, but Manager Tony La Russa pulled him from the rotation Saturday night. Among the candidates to start today are right-handers Luther Hackman and Mike Timlin or left-hander Mike Matthews. The Dodgers are 17-5 against left-handed starters.