By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

LOS ANGELES - Sean Casey was out of the lineup for the second straight night with a sore left thumb, but he's convinced the injury won't linger.

"It's a lot better," Casey said. "I'm not going to hit at all today."

PHOTO GALLERY

Photos of Saturday's game

Casey injured the thumb during a hit off Jay Witasick Thursday in the seventh inning of an 8-2 loss to San Diego.

"He kind of jammed me," Casey said. "I thought it was all right. I got another hit in the ninth."

But when Casey tried to take batting practice before Friday's game, it was too sore to continue.

"Every time I hit the ball, I got a sharp jolt," he said.

Casey was scratched from the lineup and went for treatment.

"I iced it like 57 times," he said.

Thumb injuries can be troubling to hitters. Austin Kearns missed most of the 2001 season with one. That Casey was not sent back to Cincinnati to be examined says the Reds are convinced it's not serious.

"It's definitely not," Casey said. "But it's one of those things that can keep nagging you."

Though Casey plans to play today in the series finale against the Dodgers, if the Reds kept him out, it would give him three days off because the club has an off day Monday.

FIRST AT FIRST: Javier Valentin started at first base Saturday night.

It was Valentin's first career start at anywhere but catcher.

He started eight spring training games for the Reds at first. He played there in the ninth inning of the Reds' 3-2 win over the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley April 17 but had no chances in the field.

CASTRO AT SECOND: Juan Castro started for the slumping D'Angelo Jimenez at second base. Jimenez had one hit in 21 at-bats entering Saturday.

"We tried to push him through it," manager Dave Miley said.

Castro is also slated to start at shortstop today in place of Barry Larkin, who has the day off.

MORE LARKIN: Larkin has started 30 of the Reds' 36 games. He has played in 34.

"With Monday, it will give him two days in a row off," Miley said. "He's been pretty good about telling us when he needs a day."

Larkin entered Saturday hitting .337 over his last 24 games.

GM ON VANDER WAL: Though John Vander Wal has played very well at extended spring training, Reds general manager Dan O'Brien isn't ready to commit to a date when he'll join the club.

"This is still spring training for him," O'Brien said. "He's swung the bat very well, but you have the fatigue factor."

Vander Wal is coming off January knee surgery. He played in the field Saturday for the first time.

FARM REPORT: Steve Kelly, a 24-year-old right-hander, pitched seven innings of one-run, five-hit ball in Double-A Chattanooga's 2-1 loss to Jacksonville Friday.

UP NEXT: The Reds wrap up the series and the road trip with a 4:10 p.m. game against the Dodgers today.

REDS FACT: They have converted their past six save opportunities after having blown eight of their first 18 chances.

Reds statistics

Through Friday's game

BATTERS	AVG	OBA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	CS	E
Casey	.374	.411	139	23	52	15	1	4	25	9	12	1	0	1
Hummel	.333	.353	15	1	5	1	0	0	3	1	1	0	0	0
Dunn	.298	.500	104	27	31	4	0	11	22	41	38	2	0	1
Larkin	.297	.341	128	20	38	6	1	1	11	9	19	2	0	0
Cruz	.280	.379	25	5	7	2	0	0	4	4	13	0	0	0
Larson	.278	.350	36	4	10	3	0	1	5	4	6	0	0	5
Castro	.254	.302	59	8	15	3	1	1	8	4	14	0	0	3
Freel	.248	.321	101	10	25	3	3	1	6	7	21	7	2	4
Griffey	.231	.340	121	19	28	7	0	7	22	19	29	1	0	0
LaRue	.203	.304	59	8	12	4	0	1	10	7	12	0	0	3
Jimenez	.195	.321	133	18	26	6	0	3	14	24	27	2	2	3
Pena	.182	.265	44	3	8	1	1	1	5	4	22	0	0	0
Valentin	.182	.217	55	5	10	2	0	2	7	3	6	0	0	3
Kearns	.137	.290	51	7	7	2	1	2	5	10	15	1	0	1
Romano	.067	.176	15	1	1	0	0	0	0	2	7	0	0	0
Team Totals	.243	.340	1165	162	283	62	8	35	150	162	284	16	4	25

PITCHERS	W	L	ERA	G	GS	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO
Matthews	0	0	0.00	1	0	0	0.1	1	1	0	0	1	0
Riedling	1	0	0.53	16	0	0	17.0	9	3	1	0	3	14
Graves	1	3	3.10	20	0	15	20.1	21	11	7	6	4	13
Wilson	5	0	3.99	8	8	0	49.2	58	24	22	7	14	26
Van Poppel	1	1	4.50	7	1	0	16.0	16	8	8	1	6	11
Lidle	2	3	4.70	8	8	0	51.2	49	28	27	6	10	30
Harang	3	1	4.89	7	7	0	38.2	47	21	21	5	17	31
Jones	2	1	4.95	19	0	0	20.0	18	11	11	1	8	16
Norton	0	0	5.11	16	0	0	12.1	14	8	7	1	5	7
Acevedo	2	3	5.53	7	7	0	40.2	39	26	25	8	12	34
Wagner	1	1	7.30	14	0	0	12.1	22	12	10	2	9	8
Reith	0	1	7.50	12	0	0	12.0	15	10	10	1	9	13
Team Totals	18	17	4.85	35	35	15	306.0	335	180	165	41	105	211