Aven stays hot, but Tucson downs 51s

Steve Guiremand

Thursday, May 24, 2001 | 10:14 a.m.

Until recently you might say the 2001 baseball season was literally a pain in the neck for Las Vegas 51s outfielder Bruce Aven.

The 29-year-old native of Orange, Texas, who is a member of the Dodgers' 40-man roster and made a strong run for an outfield berth on the major league team during spring training, injured his neck and also suffered a concussion after colliding with the left-field wall while chasing a fly ball in Las Vegas' season-opener against Tacoma at Cashman Field on April 5.

A few days later, Aven reinjured the neck while diving for a ball in the outfield.

Aven was forced to sit out for 18 days due to complications from the two injuries. The outfielder who hit .289 with 12 homers and 70 RBI in 137 games with the Florida Marlins in 1999 then struggled to dust off the rust and found himself hitting as low as .177 on May 10.

But Aven, who went 2-for-5 with a double and two runs scored in Wednesday night's 9-4 loss to Tucson at Cashman Field, has become something of a pain in the neck for 51s' opponents of late.

In the last two weeks, Aven has raised his batting average almost 70 points, garnering two three-hit games to go along with two homers and three doubles.

"I've been feeling a lot better at the plate the last couple of weeks," Aven said. "I need to fine-tune some at-bats. I'm still not quite comfortable on certain pitches that I'm used to hitting and doing well on. I'm not where I want to be but I'm a lot further along than I was a couple of weeks ago."

Aven admitted his early injury, originally diagnosed as just a concussion, "was scary."

"Concussions are supposed to go away. My vision was blurry and stuff, but two or three days later I was supposed to be better. Instead, I kept waking up with these headaches."

Turned out Aven had also sprained his neck when he ran into that wall.

"When you have a neck injury and you sleep on it for eight hours in the same position and wake up, your head is going to pound and ache and everything else," Aven said. "We were on the road (in Omaha and Iowa) and it was five or six days before I even got to see a doctor. And I kept waking up with these headaches."

When it was finally diagnosed that Aven had injured his neck as well as suffered a concussion, he was finally prescribed the proper medicine to battle his injury.

"They gave me some strong anti-inflamatories," Aven said. "When you have a concussion, you're not supposed to take those."

Aven admits he pressed when he was finally healthy enough to play again.

"I was trying to get six hits in each at-bat," he said.

But extra work with hitting coach Ron Jackson has helped him to turn things around of late.

"Bruce has found his groove," Las Vegas manager Rick Sofield said. "He's been working his butt off. He's been coming out early to hit and has put in the time to get back."

And possibly get back just in the nick of time.

The left fielder who plays ahead of Aven with the Dodgers, Gary Sheffield, may have an MRI done on his sore left index finger today and could be headed to the disabled list after going 3-for-31 (.097) with 16 strikeouts the last few weeks.

"If something happens and I get called up, that's great," Aven said. "If nothing happens, that's OK, too. I've played long enough to where I understand the whole thing. Until you get the phone call, you don't even worry about it. You just come back and get ready to play and continue to go about your business."

An inning earlier, Sidewinder catcher Chad Moeller was hit in the head by 51s pitcher Al Reyes.

In defense of the Las Vegas pitchers, Moeller was hit with a 1-2 pitch while Huckaby, who jawed with Masaoka as he slowly walked to first base, was conked with an 0-2 pitch.

"(Home plate umpire Jack Samuels) gave both teams warnings," Sofield said. "We weren't trying to hit people there. We were down three runs and needed to keep people off the bases and put up some goose eggs to give ourselves a chance to come back. But I can understand their frustration. When I was a player, I didn't like getting hit either."

Rizzo took the loss in Fresno's 9-5 loss to Sacramento on Tuesday night, allowing two runs in his one inning on the mound.

First baseman Desi Wilson had four hits for the Sidewinders (21-26) and is in the midst of a 22-for-32 streak at the plate.