DODGERS NOTEBOOK: BIGBIE LOOKING HEALTHY.

Byline: TONY JACKSON 

Staff Writer

VERO BEACH, Fla. -- Veteran outfielder Larry Bigbie, who is in spring training with the Dodgers on a minor-league contract, said a week ago that he would have to play a handful of Grapefruit League games before he would know whether he had fully recovered from the hernia that sidelined him for almost all of last season.

A handful apparently meant two. Three if you count intrasquad games.

Bigbie took over in left field in the fifth inning of Friday's game -- a 12-7 pasting of the Washington Nationals in front of 4,101 at Holman Stadium -- and went 3 for 3 with a three-run homer, a two-run homer and a leadoff double that barely missed being his third homer of the day, landing just inside the right-field foul line and just short of the wall.

In two Grapefruit games, Bigbie is 4 for 4. Throw in Wednesday's intrasquad game, and he already has three home runs.

All of which would seem to suggest that the hernia is history. The question now is whether Bigbie, who has an escape clause in his contract if another club comes calling with a major-league contract, will soon be history, too.

"I'm not looking at it like that," Bibgie said. "Every day I put a Dodgers uniform on, I'm playing for this team. I don't think about scouts in the stands. But obviously, if I play well, anything can happen. I just want to get my name back out there as a healthy player."

The harsh reality for Bigbie and just about any other Dodgers position player currently on the bubble is that there isn't much of a bubble to sit on. If the Dodgers go with the now-standard 11 pitchers, there probably will be room for one guy who isn't already a lock. If they go with 12 pitchers -- which is unlikely considering they don't have to use a fifth starter until April 10 -- it doesn't appear there will be room for anyone.

"But a lot of things can happen in one month," Dodgers manager Grady Little said. "We certainly don't feel like we have too many players."

Late-inning heroics by fringe players are fairly common in spring-training games, a consequence of the fact those players generally are facing bottom-of-the-barrel pitchers. Bigbie's first homer came off Chris Schroder, his second off Emiliano Fruto.

Rough start: Left-hander Mark Hendrickson, who is among those competing for the vacant fifth starter's spot, came on in relief of Jason Schmidt to begin the third inning against the Nationals. Thirteen batters later, Hendrickson had given up seven runs on five hits while recording just five outs.

In fairness, three of the runs were unearned as a result of the Dodgers' fourth and fifth errors in their first two Grapefruit games. Still, it was a harrowing spring debut for Hendrickson, a veteran starter who made it clear to Dodgers officials well before arriving in camp that he has little interest in pitching out of the bullpen, as he did late last season.

"Usually in spring training, you're going to have two or three outings where you (struggle)," Hendrickson said. "There are going to be times down here when you make good pitches and get hit and times when you make bad pitches and get outs. ... But regardless of the results, this is about preparing for April. I just wasn't as sharp as I wanted to be."

Tired topic: Non-roster lefty Matt White made his spring debut, relieving Hendrickson and retiring all four batters he faced. With that, White officially began to focus his attention on making the club at a point when he admittedly has tired of talking about the fact he is literally sitting on a gold mine.

White spent a good portion of Thursday doing national interviews after an Associated Press story emerged that the $50,000 piece of land he had bought from an aging relative in Massachusetts was discovered to have what by some accounts is a billion dollars worth of stone.

"Things have been blown so far out of proportion," White said. "These last 72 hours have been really busy. I never signed up for any of this. But I think this will all pass and be old news in a week."

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