LOS ANGELES -- Reliever Joe Beimel spent the Fourth of July in the hospital with an irregular heartbeat, the latest addition to a list of unavailable Dodgers pitchers.

Beimel was hospitalized before Tuesday night's game with the Braves, although club officials withheld announcing the situation until Wednesday. No diagnosis was given.

Beimel pitched a difficult but scoreless two innings on Monday night, experienced the episode during batting practice on Tuesday and was taken to Centinela Hospital, where he will remain undergoing tests until at least Thursday.

"There is a little something out of the ordinary there, and we want to make sure he's all right," said manager Grady Little.

Little said in a best-case scenario, Beimel would be discharged in time for Thursday night's game, so he was not put on the disabled list.

Randy Wolf, however, was. Wolf left Tuesday night's game with shoulder bursitis that began bothering him a month ago and worsened considerably this week. Wolf, who missed nearly two years after Tommy John elbow reconstruction surgery, has pitched more innings this year (102 2/3) than he's pitched since 2004, and club officials suspect fatigue. He will undergo an MRI exam on Thursday.

"It doesn't seem to be real serious," said trainer Stan Conte. "The DL will give him a break."

Wolf was replaced on the roster by left-handed starter Eric Stults, who was 5-5 with a hefty 7.11 ERA at Triple-A Las Vegas. Stults will be remembered for limiting the New York Mets to one run over six innings at Shea Stadium in his first Major League start Sept. 10.

Two days earlier, Hong-Chih Kuo held the Mets scoreless for six innings in his first Major League victory.

Speaking of Kuo: Kuo was optioned to Las Vegas on Saturday after getting knocked around Friday night by the Padres. It turns out, however, that he never reported to Las Vegas. Instead, he had an MRI exam on his left elbow on Sunday, and the option was voided. Instead, he was placed him on the DL.

Any injury to Kuo's elbow is frightening because he has undergone two Tommy John reconstruction surgeries and a third procedure to remove scar tissue, sidelining his career for five years. Conte said Kuo reported irritation in his last two starts and the club is concerned because of the pitcher's history, but "it doesn't appear to be the ligament at all, and that's good news."

He said Kuo will be shut down for seven to 10 days then will resume a light throwing program. This is Kuo's second stint on the DL this year after opening the season sidelined with a strained shoulder.

The Dodgers have had 13 disabling injuries this year, the same number as last year at this time, and they finished last year with 16.

Who starts on Sunday? Little said the decision to recall Stults was linked not to the loss of the left-handed reliever Beimel, but the loss of left-handed starter Wolf.

But Little said he remained undecided who would take Wolf's start on Sunday against the Florida Marlins. The candidates he listed were Stults, D.J. Houlton and Brett Tomko, and the decision would depend on how he uses pitchers until then.

Stults and Houlton are stretched out enough to withstand a starter's pitch count because they started at Las Vegas. Houlton has been impressive with four scoreless innings since his recall on Saturday. Stults was scheduled to start for Las Vegas on Wednesday.

Tomko (1-6, 5.89 ERA) would be a surprise, as he lost the fifth-starter spot in May and has continued to struggle in relief. But he's 7-1 lifetime against the Marlins.

Stults' theory: The soft-tossing Stults said he believes he figured out why he was struggling at Las Vegas.

"I had the four worst starts of my career [27 earned runs, 14 innings] and a lot of it was pitch selection and execution," he said. "In the spring, I developed a cutter and I started using it as my out pitch and it's really my fourth pitch. The changeup is my best pitch.

"So, I started to look at the charts and saw I was throwing way too many cutters compared to changeups and I realized I had to get back to my strength."

Stults' ERA in his last three starts is 6.91.

Coming up: Brad Penny (10-1, 2.00) makes his last start before the All-Star Game on Thursday night against Tim Hudson (8-5, 3.18) and the Braves in a 7:10 PT contest at Dodger Stadium.