La Roche doesn’t unpack essentials

Andy La Roche knew getting to the big leagues would be tough. But apparently no one told him how difficult it would be to get his luggage there too.

After getting a call from the Dodgers late Saturday, La Roche flew all night to join the team at its Atlanta hotel Sunday morning. He left his bags there with the rest of the team’s luggage and headed for the ballpark -- only to realize upon arrival his bats and gloves were about to be loaded on a truck bound for the airport.

“I had no clue how it worked,” said La Roche who, two hours later, was reunited with his equipment.

And now that he has found his bat, the Dodgers are hoping they’ve found a third baseman. Before Sunday, Dodgers third basemen were batting .173 and ranked last in the majors in home runs (zero), runs (six) and slugging percentage (.224). In his big league debut, La Roche needed only two at-bats to bring those numbers up, lining a ground-rule double in the fifth inning then coming around to score.

“We decided to try a little bit different angle,” said Manager Grady Little, who benched regular third baseman Wilson Betemit on Friday after he struck out three times, dropping his average to .125. “We know what this kid is capable of doing. We’re going to give him a good opportunity.”

The Dodgers created a roster spot for La Roche by putting infielder Marlon Anderson on the disabled list because of a sore right elbow. Anderson, who has been bothered by the sore elbow since spring training, returned to Los Angeles on Sunday and will undergo an MRI exam today.

Anderson’s absence leaves the switch-hitting Betemit as the only left-handed bat available to pinch-hit -- a responsibility he has apparently embraced since losing his starting job. His seventh-inning pinch homer Sunday was his second in as many games, making him the first Dodger to do that since Todd Benzinger in 1992.

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When the ball La Roche struck for his first big league hit took a high bounce into the first row of the right-field stands, outfielder Jeff Francoeur, aware of its significance, ran to the fence and asked the fan to throw it back.

The memento eventually made its way to clubhouse manager Mitch Poole, who was put in charge of inscribing it with all the relative facts: date, place, inning, opposing pitcher, etc. Only when it finally made its way back to La Roche, he noticed some of the information -- written on the ball in black ink -- was wrong.

“I got a baseball, but I’m not sure if that’s even the [right] one,” said La Roche, who said that, among other things, pitcher Kyle Davies’ first name was misspelled “Carl.”

“It’s not a big deal,” he said. “I don’t really need the ball or anything.”

Poole later produced the real ball -- sealed in a plastic baggy for safe-keeping -- and said La Roche would get that one soon. Poole said the Dodgers also took care of the fan, giving him a baseball as well.

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Rehabbing right-hander Yhency Brazoban pitched a scoreless inning -- his fourth in five appearances -- for triple-A Las Vegas. And Little hinted it might not be long before the pitcher is back with the Dodgers.

“We feel like very shortly we’re going to need 12 pitchers,” he said. “We don’t know when. And we don’t know exactly who that guy will be. [But] it’s a long time before we have another off day. Our bullpen has been so valuable to us so far at no time do we want to run the risk of overloading somebody.”

kevin.baxter@latimes.com