LOS ANGELES -- Hanley Ramirez is going to be taking a seat on the Dodgers bench, at least for a few days.
Ramirez has an irritated nerve in his back, which the Dodgers said Friday was causing tightness in his left hamstring. The team said the result of an MRI was no different from an MRI Ramirez had in the same area in 2011, which was the result of sciatica.
Ramirez received a cortisone injection and will not return to the lineup before next week, the Dodgers said.
Before Friday night's game against the San Francisco Giants, manager Don Mattingly indicated he would take a cautious route before allowing the shortstop back on the field.
"Definitely," he said. "I think we'll be careful with him as far as, when he gets back out there, he's feeling like we're on the other side of this."
Ramirez was removed from Thursday's game before the start of the seventh inning after telling trainers he felt tightness in his hamstring. It's been a lingering problem for him since he came off the disabled list June 4 for the same injury.
Understandably, the Dodgers would prefer to give Ramirez time to recover now, even though they haven't clinched the National League West title, rather than have it become worse before the start of the playoffs.
"The biggest thing is not letting it get anywhere, and honestly, the stuff we've been hearing the last couple of days is really what we've been hearing for two, three weeks," he said. "These aren't like new all of a sudden. They just got a little farther than we were comfortable with. We're trying to be on the cautious side of making sure it didn't go anywhere."
Nick Punto started at shortstop Friday.
