Dodgers’ Hanley Ramirez has MRI on lingering hamstring problem

The Dodgers say they’re just going the cautious route with the tight left hamstring of Hanley Ramirez, but Friday they sent him to have an MRI on the leg.

Manager Don Mattingly said the hamstring has been bothering Ramirez for the past three weeks, and they’ve been dealing with some tightness issues ever since he came off the disabled list -- where he’d been with a hamstring strain on the same leg -- June 4

Ramirez was not in the lineup Friday and Mattingly said even if the MRI comes back with good news, he would still be careful playing his shortstop over the last 16 games of the regular season.

“We don’t have to push him out there at this point,” Mattingly said.

Ramirez left Thursday’s game in the seventh inning against the Giants after notifying trainers the hamstring had tightened up.

“Honestly, the things we’ve been hearing the last couple of days are really the things we’ve been hearing for two, three weeks,” Mattingly said. “It’s not like all of a sudden. It just got a little farther than I think we were comfortable. We’re trying to be on the cautious side, making sure it didn’t go anywhere.”

Nick Punto was the scheduled starter Friday against the Giants and Mattingly said he would be the team’s primary shortstop while Ramirez is out.

“If it’s any kind of extended period of time, [then] we gotta take care of Nick too,” he said. “What we found out is if we go too many days in a row with Nick, then you end up having Nick with a problem too.”

Mattingly said he hadn’t been particularly nervous playing Ramirez the past few weeks, because the hamstring had some soreness since he spent a month on the disabled list with the original strain.

“Since he’s come back from the hammy, there’s always been a little tightness there we’ve always paid attention to,” Mattingly said. “We’ve been doing this basically since he came back.”

It sounds like the hamstring never completely healed, but Mattingly was still trying to be optimistic Friday.

“I know Hanley was feeling good about everything that was going on,” he said. “We just have to be sure.”

The Dodgers expected to have the MRI results later Friday night.