Rafael Furcal, who homered, tripled, doubled and walked in six plate appearances rehabbing with Triple-A Albuquerque, returns to the Dodger lineup tonight for his first major-league action since August 2.  From Tony Jackson:

“He had a couple of backhand plays, not really tough ones but backhands nonetheless,” said Stan Conte, the Dodgers’ director of medical services. “He also ran out a double and a triple. He had no tightness [Thursday] and no tightness today.”

Furcal started two double plays Thursday, writes Christopher Jackson of Albuquerque Baseball Examiner. Jackson adds the following color:

Things got chippy in the ninth when (Josh) Lindblom hit Matt Camp with a pitch with one out. Iowa manager Ryne Sandberg and (A.J.) Ellis started yelling at each other. The benches and bullpens cleared, but no punches were thrown and order was quickly restored.

Lindblom struck out Jonathan Mota and Sam Fuld to end the game. Fuld took exception with a called strike three and had to be restrained by Sandberg from going after home plate umpire Matt Schaufert.

The Dodgers also added catcher A.J. Ellis to the expanded active roster.

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  • John Lindsey finished third in the Pacific Coast League MVP race, writes Albuquerque’s Jackson.
  • Jon SooHoo, the great Dodger team photographer who is being honored for 25 years of service tonight, gets an appreciation via this photo package from Austin Knoblauch at the Times. (via The Left Field Pavilion).
  • Regardless of what it means for the trial, you don’t see story ledes like this every day: “Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt described himself Friday as a devoted husband who tried to comply with his wife’s exorbitant wishes but stopped when she sought $250 million for her personal use.”