DODGERS NOTEBOOK: LA ROCHE IS IN CONTROL.

Byline: TONY JACKSON

Staff Writer

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- Andy La Roche dug out all the obligatory cliches after the Dodgers' Grapefruit League game on Saturday, a 5-2 victory over the New York Mets in front of 6,117 at Tradition Field.

The celebrated third-base prospect said his main goals this spring were to play the way he always has, to stay within himself and to not worry about things beyond his control.

The funny thing is, there is a chance this whole Opening Day third baseman thing might be firmly in his control.

If La Roche -- the last man still waiting to reach the big leagues from a promising quintet of Dodgers prospects once known as the Jacksonville Five -- continues to hit the way he has in the club's first three exhibitions, he could possibly force his way into a spot that otherwise will go to incumbent Wilson Betemit.

La Roche already is 3 for 8 this spring, including a hard single off Mets fireballer Billy Wagner. He also drew a key walk in the midst of a four-run, ninth-inning rally against Mets righty Jon Adkins.

"Obviously, I have thought about what I have to do (to make the club)," La Roche said. "But all I can do is control myself and work hard."

There was a sense as recently as 48 hours ago, after Betemit went hitless in his first four spring at-bats and committed two errors in his first game, that the job was La Roche's for the taking. But La Roche committed two errors of his own Saturday, including a routine grounder by Moises Alou that would have ended the fifth inning that scooted between his legs and into left field.

But La Roche's finest moment came in the ninth inning. The Dodgers trailed 2-1 with runners on second and third with none out after a double by Fernando Tatis. For a young player pining to make a season-opening roster, this would have been the perfect situation to try to impress, to swing hard at everything in hopes of getting the big hit that would turn that one-run deficit into a one-run lead.

But instead of getting overeager and chasing pitches out of his zone, La Roche patiently worked Adkins for a walk to load the bases, and ultimately he came around to score what would have been an important run if this were an important game. And that is the sort of thing general managers and managers tend to notice.

"That last at-bat, I was a little more selective," La Roche said. "I was just trying to get on base."

That's the kind of approach that allowed La Roche to post a on-base percentage well above .400 while splitting last season with Double-A Jacksonville and Triple-A Las Vegas. Betemit's big-league OBP last year, which he split between the Dodgers and Atlanta Braves, was well below .350.

But if manager Grady Little is taking note of all that, he isn't saying so yet.

"We have a long way to go (in camp), and Andy has a lot of work to do," Little said. "Everybody has a lot of work to do, and a lot of things can happen."

Winding up: Left-hander Hong-Chih Kuo, whose bid to land the fifth starter's job officially began with two shutout innings in relief of Brad Penny, is pitching out of a windup without runners on base. It's something almost every other major-league starting pitcher does, but Kuo didn't last year because he pitched out of the bullpen until moving into the rotation late in the season.

Asked why he made the switch, Kuo didn't really have an answer.

"It's just something they wanted me to do," he said. "I have been working on it the whole offseason. Last year, at the end of the season, they told me to try to work on it."

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- Tony Jackson