Dodgers’ Garland to start Thursday; Thome due Wednesday

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Less than 24 hours after being acquired by the Dodgers, right-handed pitcher Jon Garland was tapped to start Thursday night against his former teammates, the Arizona Diamondbacks, at Dodger Stadium.

The Dodgers made a second big trade Monday night, acquiring left-handed slugger Jim Thomefrom the Chicago White Sox. Thome, with 564 career home runs, was due to join the club Wednesday afternoon and will be used mainly as a pinch-hitter with power, said Dodgers Manager Joe Torre.

‘It still hasn’t set in,’ Garland said before Tuesday night’s game against Arizona. Wearing his new Dodgers uniform with No. 21, Garland said the goal Thursday was to ‘just try and keep the emotions in check.’ (Thome will wear No. 25.)

Torre agreed ‘it will be emotional’ for Garland, 29, a Southern Californian who had been scheduled to pitch against the Dodgers on Thursday night before the trade was announced.

But A.J. Hinch, who was Garland’s manager at Arizona only a day earlier, said ‘we’ll have to get over it quickly’ once Thursday’s game starts. ‘It’s a baseball game and you go after it,’ he said. ‘You end up facing former teammates a lot, just rarely do you do it within 48 hours.’

The Dodgers’ upcoming pitching rotation calls for Chad Billingsley on Wednesday, Garland on Thursday, Clayton Kershaw on Friday and Randy Wolf on Saturday, with the possibility that Hiroki Kuroda -- who is on the disabled list after being hit in the head with a line drive Aug. 15 -- could return and start Sunday, Torre said.

-- Jim Peltz