Takashi Saito is out at least six weeks

With leading hitter Rafael Furcal and opening day starter Brad Penny already on the disabled list, the Dodgers learned Tuesday that they will be without closer Takashi Saito until at least late August.

Saito, 38, was diagnosed by team physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache with a sprained ligament in his right elbow and will placed on the 15-day DL when the Dodgers resume playing on Friday in Arizona. . He will rehabilitate in Los Angeles for an estimated six weeks, after which he will be reevaluated.

General Manager Ned Colletti said in a statement released by the team that acquiring a replacement for Saito prior to the July 31 would be difficult, adding that the Dodgers had “candidates within the staff” - a sign that hard-throwing 24-year old setup man Jonathan Broxton would get a shot at closing.

Less clear was who would replace Broxton, who has a 3.40 ERA and 46 strikeouts in 39 2/3 innings, as the Dodgers’ eighth-inning man. Manager Joe Torre said that Hong-Chih Kuo had the mental makeup for the job, but admitted that the left-hander’s history of injuries made him weary of burdening him with a heavy workload. Joe Beimel is also a candidate, Torre said.

Saito is 3-3 with 17 saves and a 2.18 earned-run average in 39 appearances. He has saved 80 games in his three seasons with the Dodgers, including 39 last year, when he was an All-Star.

“Obviously, it is not easy replacing someone like him,” Colletti said.

Saito experienced what he described as an abnormal tightness in his elbow in the ninth inning of a tied ballgame against the Florida Marlins on Saturday night, forcing him to make a premature exit and prompting Torre to say that he had to “assume the worst.”

Citing his age and extensive battles with injuries over 14 seasons pitching for the Yokohama BayStars of Japan, Saito has said that the end of his career could be near.

“I want to play as long as I can,” Saito said in May, “but I’m always thinking that my next game could be my last.”

For Saito, fearing the end is nothing new. He had a serious scare last July when he experienced discomfort in his shoulder, saying at the time that he had similar symptoms when he had disc problems in Japan. The issue turned out to be relatively minor, as Saito missed only a week.

Saito said on Saturday night that he felt no pain striking out Cody Ross and John Baker to start the ninth inning. But on the first pitch to Wes Helms, Saito said he was “hit with a sudden tightness.” Saito threw three more pitches and later said he felt the discomfort increase with every pitch.

Saito said he thought at the time, “This isn’t normal tightness.”

He said he had to hold his toothbrush with his left hand when brushing his teeth the next morning.

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James Loney has less than two years of major-league service time but will be working with his fourth big-league hitting coach when the Dodgers resume playing on Friday in Arizona.

Don Mattingly is in and Mike Easler is out, the latter moving onto the list of coaches past that includes Eddie Murray and Bill Mueller.

“We’ll adjust,” Loney said.

But the 24-year old first baseman admitted that he will miss Easler, who remains in the organization as a roving instructor. Loney and Easler worked together last year in triple-A Las Vegas.

“He had tremendous energy,” Loney said of Easler, the man with the booming voice who worked with players in the batting cages several hours before the start of games. “There’s definitely a part of me that will miss him. He’ll be missed by a lot of guys.”

Matt Kemp worked with Easler even more extensively than Loney, as he and Easler were together in double-A Jacksonville in 2006 and in Las Vegas last year.

“He’s the reason I’m here today,” Kemp said. “We started out in double A. He got me here.”

Kemp was reluctant to talk about how he felt about Easler’s departure in the days leading up to the All-Star break.

Easler didn’t hide the way he felt about the Dodgers’ young players, saying he hoped management kept the group intact.

“They need to, as much as possible,” Easler said. “I know you’ve got to make a trade here and there. But if you keep these kids together, you’ll have another Lopes, Russell, Garvey. You’ve got that in the making right now.”