Perez Is Put on the Disabled List Again

Odalis Perez was put on the disabled list Monday, retroactive to Thursday, because of a muscle strain on his right side, making roster room for right-hander Edwin Jackson to start against Florida.

“It was pretty apparent that the opportunity for him to make his next start would not be there,” Manager Jim Tracy said of Perez, who was also on the DL from May 15 to July 5 because of a sore left (pitching) shoulder. Perez signed a three-year, $24-million contract with the Dodgers in the off-season.

Perez’s spot in the rotation is due up Saturday at home against Houston. Tracy would not commit to Jackson’s getting the start.

And although Perez is eligible to come off the DL on Sept. 2, the day his turn would again come up, the Dodgers could skip that spot, since they have a day off Sept. 1.

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Hee-Seop Choi knows he has a significantly higher batting average when he bats second in the lineup. But even he was surprised to hear that he was hitting .342 in that spot.

“Wow, .342? That’s good,” said Choi, who is batting .261 overall.

So why the increased production there?

“In the third, fourth or fifth spots, you don’t get a good ball to hit,” he said. “You see a lot of strikes at the two-hole.”

Thirteen of Choi’s 14 home runs this year were hit in games he started batting second. He hit his other homer as a pinch-hitter.

Choi rarely plays against left-handed pitchers, and that was the case Sunday, the day after he’d missed hitting for the cycle by a home run. Still, he singled in a pinch-hit appearance that day against Florida left-hander Jason Vargas.

Having played in 108 games, Choi has the same .261 average against right-handers, whom he has faced 245 times, as he does against lefties, whom he has faced 23 times.

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Rookie reliever Jonathan Broxton, who was called up from double-A Jacksonville on July 29, was optioned back to the Suns after the game. Right-hander Franquelis Osoria, who has a 4.50 earned-run average in 11 appearances with the Dodgers this year, will be recalled from triple-A Las Vegas today.

“It was a great learning experience to be up here,” said Broxton, who had a 6.75 ERA in seven games. “They told me to keep progressing and to go down there to help out with the playoffs.”

Broxton and his 97-mph fastball may be recalled by the Dodgers after the Suns’ postseason, and Tracy said the Dodgers had hoped to use Broxton in the “seventh or eighth innings” of games.

“He’s not ready for that yet,” Tracy said. “There’s a learning curve there that still needs to be fulfilled.... He’s going to get there. He’s going to be special.”