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LOS ANGELES - Egads! When Indians super-utility man Mark DeRosa plays first base for Team USA Sunday night, he will be wearing Adam Dunn's glove. "It's been in his bag for a little longer than I would have liked. ... It's actually got some mold on it," DeRosa said at Friday's workout at Dodger Stadium, joking. "It's one of those things where you don't have a choice — either that, or run to a sporting goods store and grab a first baseman's glove. It's fine. It will get the job done." DeRosa became Team USA's best option at first after the Cubs' Derrek Lee rejected a last-minute appeal from the commissioner's office to replace the injured Kevin Youkilis, according to major-league sources. Dunn eliminated himself from consideration by making two errors at first in Team USA's 10-6 loss to Venezuela on Wednesday night. He also had a third potential error nullified by a balk. Lee, recovering from a strained right quadriceps, has not played for the Cubs since Monday. He is expected to return Sunday, but is only 5-for-28 in the Cactus League and feared aggravating his injury if he tried to run hard in the WBC, sources said. He also has yet to play nine innings this spring. DeRosa, 34, said he does not own a first baseman's glove — he has made only 13 career appearances at the position, including six starts. He borrowed Lee's glove when he played first during his two years with the Cubs. Team USA manager Davey Johnson has said that Indians manager Eric Wedge asked that DeRosa not play first in the WBC. DeRosa, however, already has played second, third and left field in the tournament. Team officials approached DeRosa about playing first after Dunn's poor performance Wednesday night. DeRosa informed them that he had experience, albeit limited, at the position. That decided it; the Indians were not consulted. "I wouldn't say I'm necessarily comfortable, but I can get by," DeRosa said. "It's first base. At the end of the day, you've got to catch the ball. "I've already talked to (bench coach Barry) Larkin. He will tell me when he wants me to play behind runners, when he wants me to hold runners. Bunt plays are pretty straightforward. "Catch the ball and throw it — that's what I try to do at every position. In the outfield, catch the ball and hit the cutoff man. In the infield, know where you're supposed to be. The toughest part is knowing the intricacies, pickoff plays, who has a good one, who doesn't." One and Dunn The "baseball gods" got to Adam Dunn. (Jeffrey M. Boan / Associated Press) Dunn, who has appeared in 127 career games at first base, will return to right field for the semifinal. He had jokingly compared his hands to Omar Vizquel's before Wednesday night's game, and regrets being so confident. "The baseball gods got me — seriously," Dunn said. "I knew it, too. As soon as I walked in (to the clubhouse) I called it. I knew it would be a debacle. You can't do that to the baseball gods." Actually, Dunn did not pretend to be Keith Hernandez in a pre-game conversation with three reporters, saying only that he would be "fine" at first. "I wasn't fine, was I?" Dunn said. "I cost us the game." Are we trying? By choosing Roy Oswalt over Jake Peavy to pitch against Japan, Johnson is going with the starter who gives him the best chance to win. Peavy, who will start the final if Team USA advances, has recorded a 14.40 ERA in five innings in the WBC. Oswalt has posted a 3.52 ERA in 7 2/3 innings. Johnson's bottom-line approach, however, goes only so far; he will not play his best possible defense in the semifinal, starting Dunn in right, Derek Jeter at shortstop and Jimmy Rollins at DH. Rollins, as I wrote in a previous column is superior to Jeter at short. Team USA's best defensive outfield would be Ryan Braun in left, Curtis Granderson in center and Shane Victorino in right — an alignment that would still allow Dunn to serve as DH if Johnson sat Jeter entirely. Jeter, however, does not warrant such treatment: He is batting .292 with a .414 on-base percentage in 28 plate appearances in the WBC, and also is 4-for-12 with two homers lifetime against Japan's scheduled starter, Red Sox right-hander Daisuke Matsuzaka. Granderson, 4-for-9 with a double and homer off Matsuzaka, is the logical choice over Victorino in center. Victorino can replace Dunn in the late innings if Team USA gets a lead; neither has faced Matsuzaka. Brian Roberts, the only Team USA starter besides Jeter from an AL East club, has good numbers against Matsuzaka — 6-for-12 with two doubles and three walks. Ziegler: Team USA's 'host monkey' A number of Team USA members have fallen ill during the WBC. The players blame A's reliever Brad Ziegler, joking that he infected them with SARS — Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome — after arriving ill from Arizona. "I think everyone has had it except for Jeter — he's immune," Rollins said. Jimmy Rollins and his teammates have been battling some illnesses. (Lynne Sladky / Associated Press) Rollins said he actually was grateful that he was the DH and not the shortstop against Puerto Rico last Tuesday night. He was particularly ill in that game, so perhaps he could not have handled the two plays that Jeter failed to make, leading directly to runs. Ziegler, meanwhile, credited DeRosa with the creation of his new nickname — "host monkey." He said that the teasing is his teammates' way of "getting me back." "I was sick when I first got to Clearwater," said Ziegler, referring to the team's training site in Florida. "I was the first one to miss a day, had to hang out in the trainer's room. Gradually, one by one, everyone caught something at least once. I've caught something a second time." Unnecessary games, unncecessary risks Japanese first baseman Shuichi Murata will miss the rest of the tournament after pulling his right hamstring in the final game of Round 2, a largely meaningless affair that served only to establish seeding Team USA third baseman David Wright cracked the toenail on his big toe in a game that was just as much of a waste. Hello? For the 2013 tournament, WBC organizers should eliminate the final game in each of the first two rounds, as well as limit the number of days off in between games. Head-to-head records should be the first criteria for seedings in the semifinals, followed by run differential. An extra game for seeding purposes is simply unnecessary. Relax, he's OK Wright, who said his toe is "a little sore" but fine, fully expects to be ready for Sunday. He was aware that Mets manager Jerry Manuel had said, "He probably shouldn't have played if he felt he had a broken toe." But Wright never believed his toe was broken. Don't worry. David Wright says he'll be ready for Opening Day. (Doug Benc / Getty Images) "Jerry knows I like playing. Jerry knows I enjoy being in there," Wright said. "We're definitely on the same page. He wants me to be ready for Opening Day. He also wants me to do well in the Classic. "I wouldn't do anything to jeopardize me being ready the first week of April. I know my body. I know when it's something serious. I know when it's something I can play through. I felt like I could play through that." Around the horn Team USA substituted Evan Longoria for Chipper Jones, but chose not to replace Youkilis with another position player after it could not get Lee. Playing DeRosa at first enables Dunn to return to the outfield, giving the team four outfielders, including a now-healthy Ryan Braun. Adding a player such as the Indians' Grady Sizemore only would have created a logjam, Johnson said. Bill Ripken, a coach for Team USA, says the team's two catchers, Brian McCann and Chris Iannetta, are "the best I've ever seen blocking balls." Ripken, a major leaguer from 1987 to '98, acknowledged that he has been out of the game for more than a decade but expressed amazement that only one pitch has gotten by either catcher the entire tournament — and that pitch was a breaking ball that hit the grass in front of home plate.