Escobar Put on Disabled List

Saying he wanted to avoid surgery to shave the bone spur on his right (pitching) elbow, Kelvim Escobar (2-2, 3.54 earned-run average) was put on the 15-day disabled Friday, retroactive to Thursday. The move allowed the Angels to activate right fielder Vladimir Guerrero, but the team will have to make another move before Escobar’s spot in the rotation comes up again Tuesday.

It is Escobar’s third trip to the DL this season.

“I’m frustrated because I had never been on the DL, only once,” said Escobar, who left his start Wednesday at Atlanta in the fifth inning with elbow soreness. “I came to spring training with a weak shoulder, I strained my elbow and now I have a spur. There’s not much I can do.”

Escobar, 29, said he took a cortisone shot in the elbow that is much stronger than the anti-inflammatory medication he had been taking.

“That’s my last shot right there” to avoid surgery, he said.

The Angels could recall Ervin Santana, 22, from triple-A Salt Lake to start against Washington at home, but Manager Mike Scioscia was playing coy.

“We’ll see, but we have some options,” Scioscia said.

*

Jeff DaVanon and his broken nose avoided the disabled list -- for now -- and he took early batting practice at Shea Stadium.

“He’s available,” Scioscia said. “We have to try to keep him away from walls.”

DaVanon pinch-hit in the ninth and drew a bases-loaded walk.

DaVanon broke his nose Wednesday when a fly ball ricocheted off the wall and hit him in the nose before he ran face-first into the wall.

*

Orlando Cabrera assumed a self-deprecating stance when he saw his name in the No. 8 spot in the batting order.

“I [stink],” he said. “I hit eighth as a rookie; that’s the last time I hit eighth.”

Actually, it’s the 13th time this season he has batted eighth, but the first time he has hit one spot ahead of the pitcher, which, according to Cabrera, is akin to “hitting ninth.”