Sore Jordan Avoids Disabled List

A freak accident around the batting cage Sunday will cause some pain but no trip to the disabled list for left fielder Brian Jordan, who was struck on the outside of his right hand near the wrist by a ball fouled into the protective net by teammate Dave Roberts in Montreal.

X-rays of the hand Monday were negative, and Jordan started in center field against the Atlanta Braves, even though he could barely keep both hands on the bat during batting practice.

“I’m going to take some Tylenol and hope it kicks in,” Jordan said before the game. “If I can swing the bat, I can play.”

Jordan taped the wrist and played with a small brace. His hand was still swollen, and he was in considerable pain, but that beat the alternative -- a broken bone that could have sidelined him for weeks.

“Pain is pain, I can deal with that,” Jordan said. “This was a big relief. I was nervous all [Sunday] night. I couldn’t sleep.”

Had Jordan been seriously injured, he would have gone down in Southern California batting-cage lore with former Angels Chuck Finley, who was sidelined for a month in 1997 when a bat flew out of a teammate’s hands and struck him in the face outside the cage, and Gary DiSarcina, who sat out 2 1/2 months in 1999 after he stepped out of the cage and was struck in the forearm by a fungo bat.

“A player getting hurt between the lines is enough to deal with, but to have a guy leaning on the cage and get hit on the hand? That’s a freak thing,” Manager Jim Tracy said.

“To lose a player for a long period of time in that manner would have been difficult to accept.”

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The injury update on Todd Hundley wasn’t as promising. The backup catcher, on the disabled list because of an inflamed sciatic nerve in his lower back, made very little progress last week, and it’s highly unlikely he’ll be ready when he’s eligible to come off the DL on Saturday.

Hundley, who is undergoing physical therapy, may receive a second epidural injection in an attempt to alleviate the pain, and Tracy said he’s “about 50%, no better.”

“I don’t have any sense right now of when I can come back,” Hundley said. “One day it’s good, one day it’s bad. I’m taking it day by day.”

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Roberts, who played all three games on Montreal’s unforgiving artificial surface over the weekend, did not start Monday night in center field but is expected to play tonight. Roberts, who sat out six games after straining his right hamstring in late April, was experiencing some soreness in his leg.... Reliever Paul Shuey, out since April 24 because of a sprained right knee, will pitch to hitters during batting practice or in a simulated game today or Wednesday before being activated later this week.