LOS ANGELES — Hiroki Kuroda maintained his sense of humor when talking about what could be his greatest setback of an injury-riddled season: a slightly bulging disk in his neck that will sideline him for at least the opening round of the playoffs.

Asked whether he considered this to be unluckiest season of his professional career, Kuroda replied, “So far. But my career’s not over yet.”
Kuroda spent most of the first two months this season on the disabled list because of a strained side muscle. He returned to the DL in August after a line drive struck him on the head.
With Kuroda unavailable, Manager Joe Torre will face simpler decisions when assembling his postseason roster — but simpler, in this case, probably isn’t better.
Randy Wolf and Clayton Kershaw figure to start the first two games of the National League division series, with Chad Billingsley, Vicente Padilla and Jon Garland candidates to start the next two.
Padilla will start the regular-season finale Sunday. Garland, who gave up five runs in 3°innings in a loss to San Diego on Wednesday, is scheduled to pitch in relief that day.
Kuroda said he didn’t know when he would be able to pitch again.
Trainer Stan Conte said that won’t happen until Kuroda has “full, pain-free range of motion.” Conte added that an injury like this can take anywhere from a week to six weeks to heal.
When Kuroda asked Dr. Robert Watkins Jr. whether he could pitch through the pain, he was told that doing so could worsen the injury to the point of requiring surgery.
Conte said he believed that this injury was unrelated to the line drive that hit Kuroda in August, but Kuroda wasn’t so sure.
“After that, my neck and back were always sore,” Kuroda said. “But this was a pain I hadn’t felt before.”
Kuroda said he first felt it Tuesday when running in San Diego.
“If there’s a way I could pitch, I would like to,” Kuroda said. “But I don’t want to do anything halfway. There’s too much at stake in a short series.”