Torre to give Kuo the start treatment

Because of his medical history, Hong-Chih Kuo wasn’t considered for the fifth spot in the Dodgers rotation that Esteban Loaiza won in spring training.

That same medical history is being cited by Manager Joe Torre as one of the reasons the left-hander will be taken out of the bullpen and handed a start Tuesday when the Dodgers play host to Pittsburgh.

“It’s not easy to pitch him out of the bullpen,” Torre said, noting that he’s had to avoid warming up Kuo multiple times in games, thereby limiting how he can be used.

But if anyone seems unaffected by Kuo’s past, which includes four surgeries on his throwing elbow, it’s Kuo himself. Though the latest procedure took place last July -- he had bone chips removed -- Torre noted that the 26-year-old “didn’t want to be babied.”

“Even though he’s had physical ailments out there in the past, he wanted to get the ball, go out there and throw it,” Torre said. “If he hurt himself, he hurt himself. That’s something you don’t want to happen, but you sort of like that type of attitude.”

Kuo said he pondered retirement in the wake of his surgery last year and that what brought him back to the Dodgers was their willingness to invest more time in him.

“I really appreciated that,” he said.

He said that he has felt free of any discomfort in his elbow, enough so that he hasn’t hesitated using the curveball that he stopped using after his second surgery, in 2003.

“I couldn’t control it,” Kuo said of the pitch.

Kuo didn’t give up any runs in either of his first two appearances and has struck out eight in 6 2/3 innings. He made a start against the San Francisco Giants on April 2, but only because Torre was convinced the contest would be delayed, if not postponed, because of rain after two or three innings and decided to scratch Chad Billingsley. Kuo pitched again April 8 in Arizona, striking out five in 3 2/3 innings.

Kuo threw 65 pitches in that game, convincing Torre that he should be able to throw between 70 and 80 pitches Tuesday.

Kuo’s limited pitch count, coupled with Billingsley pitching only five innings Sunday, figures to result in another busy few days for Dodgers relievers. But Torre said that wouldn’t prevent him from going to the bullpen today when starter Hiroki Kuroda begins to fatigue, even though Kuroda frequently threw more than 140 pitches in a game in Japan.

------

Nomar Garciaparra was 0 for 4 for triple-A Las Vegas in Sacramento in the second game of his minor league rehabilitation assignment. Garciaparra, the designated hitter, grounded into a double play in his first at-bat. He is 0 for 7 in his two minor league games.

Torre said that the third baseman could be with the Dodgers on the upcoming five-game trip, which starts in Atlanta on Friday.

------

Andy LaRoche is urging management to send him to extended spring training in Vero Beach, Fla., when the Dodgers travel to Atlanta. LaRoche, who is recovering from thumb surgery, has been throwing a baseball for the last three days and will attempt to throw across the diamond today. But he admitted that he feels a lack of strength in his hand when hitting.

--

dylan.hernandez@latimes.com