Two days, Hanley Ramirez says. That’s all he needs.

“We’re learning not to listen to Hanley,” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said to a cackling crowd of reporters. “We’re going to listen to medical on this.”

It wasn’t “two days,” but the Dodgers’ medical staff had some good news for Ramirez Monday. An MRI on his strained left hamstring revealed no further damage, and he may be able to miss the disabled list altogether.

Ramirez was limited to pinch-hitting duties for three games prior to Sunday, when he was given the day off entirely. Mattingly said that Ramirez is available to pinch hit tonight, but “I’d like to stay away from him, honestly.”

The Dodgers have gotten 23 plate appearances out of Ramirez this season and don’t want to exacerbate his latest injury. So why not put him on the DL? Isn’t this a repeat of Mark Ellis‘ strained right quad in April — an injury that ultimately forced Ellis to miss 19 games but didn’t land him on the disabled list until May 6, a full 10 days later?

“Obviously each one is separate,” Mattingly said. “With Hanley’s, this one is after a DL so he’s had the time off. Mark never went on. We are playing with basically five bench guys like you would normally. We could’ve added an extra bullpen guy during this small stretch. The fact that the MRI is not showing any changes or any damage down, I think that makes everybody feel better, that this is not another 15 days. It may be four or five, but at this point we have five extras like we normally would.”

Ramon Hernandez, Luis Cruz, Scott Van Slyke, Justin Sellers and Skip Schumaker are the other reserves available to the Dodgers off the bench tonight.

Sellers was recalled from Triple-A Albuquerque, where he was batting .337 with one home run and 17 RBIs in 24 games, and optioned Matt Magill to Albuquerque. Magill took the loss Sunday against the Atlanta Braves.