A sturdier Furcal is hitting his stride

When rounding bases, Rafael Furcal still feels pain in the left ankle he sprained during spring training.

But Furcal said the pain that has pestered him the entire season has become less severe over the last month.

“The four days of the All-Star break allowed me to give my ankle enough rest to make it a little stronger,” Furcal said. “I still feel it, but if I run straight, it doesn’t hurt me that much.”

Furcal hit .350 over the first 19 games coming out of the break, compared to .273 before the break. He was five for nine with three runs in the Dodgers’ three-game series against the San Francisco Giants that concluded Thursday.

Historically, Furcal has been a better hitter in the second half of the season, Manager Grady Little said. This season is no different.

But coach Manny Mota said a change in approach was the main reason for Furcal’s turnaround.

Mota said that he and hitting coach Bill Mueller have stressed to Furcal the importance of working counts and being more selective. The shortstop’s on-base percentage was .341 before the All-Star break and .404 over the next 19 games.

“He isn’t swinging the bat as hard,” Mota said. “His swing is more controlled.”

That, Mota said, is important because the key to his game is getting on base.

“If he gets on base, he’ll have his chance to score runs. That’s his game.”

Of the 59 runs Furcal had scored before Friday’s game, 17 had been scored after the All-Star break.

Mota said he noticed that Furcal seems to be running with greater ease these days.

But, Mota said, whether or not Furcal is healthy, he’s going to play hard. He never complains.

Asked if he was worried that that part of Furcal’s character could result in his further hurting himself, Mota said, “He has to play his game, which is to be aggressive. He can’t play conservative because that’s not his game. That’s how he’s used to playing and that’s how we’re used to him playing.”

Reliever Rudy Seanez says he believes he has fixed the mechanical problems responsible for his recent struggles.

After giving up six home runs in 5 2/3 innings, Seanez has pitched 2 1/3 shutout innings over his last three appearances.

Seanez didn’t want to say what he changed -- “I don’t want hitters to know what to look for” -- but he said he’d made his delivery more efficient.

“Sometimes it felt like I was using so much energy to get the ball up, before I even threw it,” Seanez said.

He said the greatest challenge was to find a way to make changes without being able to work on the side.

“As a reliever, you can’t work on it a couple of days, then get in a game,” he said. “You have to make adjustments now.”

Jeff Kent was out of the lineup for the fourth consecutive game because of a strained left hamstring. He remains day-to-day. . . . Relief pitcher Chin-hui Tsao will travel with the Dodgers to Cincinnati and St. Louis next week and will start a throwing program, trainer Stan Conte said. The strength in Tsao’s ailing right shoulder is back to almost 100%. . . . Randy Wolf will skip the upcoming trip and will start physical therapy to rehabilitate his sore left shoulder next week. . . . Left-hander Hong-Chih Kuo is recovering well from the elbow surgery he underwent last week to remove bone chips. He has almost all range of motion back, Conte said. Kuo feels soreness resulting from the surgery and won’t be allowed to throw a baseball until that soreness is gone. . . . Third base coach Rich Donnelly turned 61 Friday. . . . Friday also marked the 10-year anniversary of Tom Lasorda’s induction into the Hall of Fame.

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dylan.hernandez@latimes.com