Dodgers to place Vicente Padilla on 15-day disabled list with bulging disc in neck

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File this under the department of What Else Can Go Wrong?

For the slumping Dodgers it’s another day, another … what?

Before Thursday’s game against the Colorado Rockies, the Dodgers announced right-hander Vicente Padilla had been placed on the 15-day disabled list with a bulging disc in his neck. [Updated, 7:47 p.m.: The Dodgers have not officially placed Padilla on the disabled list, but they are expected to at some point following Thursday’s game against the Rockies.]

‘It’s like that other shoe hitting the floor,’ said Manager Joe Torre.

Padilla had been brilliant through a recent seven-game stretch (4-1, 1.13 earned-run average), but in his last two starts that the Dodgers now say he was suffering from the neck and left shoulder pain, he stumbled to 1-1 with an 11.57 ERA.

Trainer Stan Conte said Padilla had an MRI on Thursday and the injury is not believed serious.

‘It’s not a real big bulge and it’s not pressing on a nerve,’ Conte said.

Conte said the injury is not expected to require surgery. Padilla is scheduled to have an epidural Friday.

Torre said rookie Carlos Monasterios would start in Padilla’s place Friday against the Cincinnati Reds unless he’s needed in long relief Thursday.

Torre said when he informed the right-hander of his options, he said: ‘That’s good either way.’

The Dodgers plan to call right-handed reliever Travis Schlichting back up from triple-A Albuquerque on Friday, unless Monasterios pitches Thursday.

Then who would start Friday?

‘I don’t know,’ Torre said. ‘Maybe another quick move to get somebody else here.’

Previously this season with the Dodgers, Schlichting was 1-0 with a 2.86 ERA in 13 games.

Earlier Padilla, 32, missed almost two months at the beginning of the season with a nerve problem in elbow.

This injury is not considered as serious.

‘He’s not going to pitch with it again,’ Torre said. ‘He’ll miss a start, maybe two. I’m not saying it’s going to be the rest of the year, but we have to give it a chance to quiet down.’

-- Steve Dilbeck