Hanley Ramirez leg injury an unknown filled with serious anxiety

And now for the definitive story on the Hanley Ramirez injury.

Wait, hold that thought. Hold everything, particularly your sense of the unknown, if not just plain dread.

Ramirez left the game in seventh inning of Thursday’s 3-2 win over the San Francisco Giants in what the Dodgers called a precautionary move because of mild left hamstring tightness.

After the game, Ramirez said … nothing. Zippo. He dressed in a hurry and walked quickly past reporters in a stadium hallway as they were about to enter the postgame clubhouse.

Asked to stop for a moment by the media, he kept walking, head down and without comment, though a couple of reporters thought he did say something unintelligible.

So I can’t tell you exactly how nervous to be over his hamstring, but I don’t feel like siding on the side of caution.

Ramirez strained the same left hamstring in early May and was out a month. Strain a hamstring once and it becomes more susceptible to happening again.

Ramirez has been running at less than full speed for a couple of days. He looked like the leg was bothering him when he beat out an infield single in the first, but remained in the game.

In the fifth inning he bounced out to third, again looking like he was running rather gingerly, like he was trying to protect the leg. After the sixth, he told the trainers his leg felt tight.

Manager Don Mattingly said he took him out of the game as soon as the trainers relayed what Ramirez had said.

“He wanted to stay in the game but I told him it wasn’t worth it,” Mattingly said.

He has that right. The Dodgers have only 16 games left in the regular season, but a significant postseason waits. One that definitely needs their most dynamic hitter.

“I think he’s OK,” Mattingly said.

I think the Dodgers should be nervous. If you can’t run, you can’t play. And right now, Ramirez apparently can’t run. At least not without risking greater injury.

Things have been going very well for the Dodgers, but it’s the middle of September and OK to be nervous.