"With apologies to rocker Tom Petty, the waiting is the hardest part for Rafael Furcal.

It's been nearly three weeks since the Dodgers shortstop went on the disabled list after breaking his left thumb while sliding, and "I want to play right now," Furcal, still wearing a splint on the finger, said before Saturday's game.

Furcal was expected to miss four to six weeks. The wait "is boring," said Furcal, 33, the team's highest-paid player with a salary of $12 million. "As soon as possible I want to come back to the field."

Furcal might soon make some progress. "It's starting to feel much better," and on Monday "we've got three weeks [since the injury] and we can start, maybe, seeing what we can do," he said. Furcal, a switch-hitter who throws right-handed, said he still hasn't tried catching a ball.

Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly agreed that Furcal was "getting close to being able to start doing some baseball activities, and we'll see where we get to go from there. He's walked around showing me he can move [the thumb] and it's not hurting him.""