Zach Neto said he is going to sleep much better now, and perhaps he can dream about sliding feet first.

Neto hurt his right shoulder on a head-first slide on Tuesday, the same way he suffered the injury last September that led to offseason surgery. After an MRI exam on Wednesday morning showed no structural damage, Neto said he was both relieved and eager to find a way to avoid this happening again.

“I didn’t think anything of (sliding head first) after coming back from my surgery, but this kind of being a more recurring thing, it’s something I’m gonna have to start learning how to do, maybe sliding feet first,” Neto said.

In the meantime, he said after Wednesday’s game that his shoulder was “pretty sore.” Acting manager Ray Montgomery said Neto is day-to-day, but he stopped short of predicting that he’d be back in the lineup when the Angels return to action on Friday night.

With off days Thursday and Monday, the Angels could conceivably give Neto six full days off — including Wednesday — while having him miss only four games. The Angels play three games this weekend against the Washington Nationals, before returning to action on Tuesday in Atlanta.

“The conscientious thing to do is to make sure,” Montgomery said. “We have a long season left to go, and we’ve got the All-Star break coming up. So let’s just be patient and smart and have him for the stretch. We’re a different team with him, and everybody knows that.”

Neto said he would have to test his arm with some drills before returning.

Last September, Neto got hurt on a head-first slide and was then considered day to day. The season had just a few days left, so he didn’t play again. He then spent about a month trying to rehab before relenting and having surgery. That ended up costing him the first three weeks of the regular season.

The Angels don’t want to go through that again.

“We definitely need him out there,” outfielder Jo Adell said. “He’s a spark plug for what we do in all phases of the game. And so we’re really excited that it’s not as bad as what it appeared to be right off the bat. Just get him back when it makes sense. He’ll be back in the mix, doing his thing. So we’re really excited about that.”

— Jeff Fletcher

RUSH HOUR

Dodgers rookie catcher Dalton Rushing made his 13th major-league start Wednesday at Coors Field. It was his first pairing with right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who is the eighth different starting pitcher Rushing has caught (including Lou Trivino, Matt Sauer and Shohei Ohtani in bullpen games).

Rushing’s starts have been much more tied to the schedule and when the Dodgers want to give Will Smith a day off — like Wednesday’s night game before a day game Thursday — and far less about who is pitching.

“I think he can handle it,” Manager Dave Roberts said. “When I watch young players on the bench, he’s asking the right questions. He’s watching, absorbing. And so I think that I want to continue to challenge him.

“He’s building relationships with the pitchers, and I think that’s the thing that if you do that, you get a little more grace with the pitchers. That’s what I see right now, as a young ballplayer.”

— Bill Plunkett

FRANCO FOUND GUILTY

Wander Franco, the suspended Tampa Bay Rays shortstop charged in a sexual abuse case in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, was found guilty on Thursday, but received a two-year suspended sentence.

Franco was arrested last year after being accused of having a four-month relationship with a girl who was 14 at the time, and of transferring thousands of dollars to her mother to consent to the illegal relationship.

Franco, now 24, also faced charges of sexual and commercial exploitation against a minor, and human trafficking.

ALL-STARS

The Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani and the New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge were the first players picked for the July 15 All-Star Game at Atlanta’s Truist Park, elected as starters by fans on Thursday.

Judge led the major leagues with 4,012,983 votes in the first round of fan balloting and the outfielder was picked for his seventh American League start in eight All-Star Games, though he missed the 2023 game because of a sprained right big toe.

Ohtani topped the NL and was second in the big leagues with 3,967,668 votes, becoming the first designated hitter to start in five straight All-Star Games.

The pair were selected under rules that began in 2022 and give starting spots to the top vote-getter in each league in the first phase of online voting, which began June 4 and ended Thursday. Two finalists at every other position advanced to the second phase, which runs from 9 a.m. PDT on Monday to 9 a.m. PDT on July 2. Votes from the first phase do not carry over. An individual can vote once per 24-hour period.

Starters will be announced on July 2, pitchers and reserves on July 6.