Dodgers’ Yasiel Puig limited by hamstring injury, won’t start tonight.

Yasiel Puig

Yasiel Puig’s hamstring held up well enough for him to run out of the dugout with a bucket full of ice and juice Monday night. (Hans Gutknecht/Staff photographer)

Yasiel Puig is being held out of the Dodgers’ starting lineup tonight because of a strained left hamstring, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. The injury is not considered serious and Mattingly left open the possibility that Puig could appear in the game as a pinch hitter.

“He’d be the one (position player in this game) for sure that I’d try to stay away from, be a little more cautious with,” Mattingly said. “That being said, being able to swing the bat may be something we’re going to be able to do.”

Andre Ethier will make his second start in right field this season in Puig’s place. He also played right field Saturday in Arizona and went 0 for 3 with a walk. Ethier’s double leading off the 10th inning Monday kick-started the Dodgers’ game-winning rally.

Right-hander Hisashi Iwakuma is starting for the Seattle Mariners; he’s faced Ethier only once in his career and struck him out.

As for Puig, it’s not clear when or how he suffered the injury in Monday’s game.

“We’ve seen the running last night and it looked like something was bothering (Puig) a little bit so we’re going to be cautious,” Mattingly said. “He actually felt great today and wanted to play, but we felt we better be cautious.”

It’s possible that Puig will return to the Dodgers’ starting lineup as early as Wednesday, the finale of the three-game series and the “Civil Rights Game” as designated by MLB. Every player will wear a #42 jersey in observance of Jackie Robinson breaking baseball’s color barrier on April 14, 1947.

ESPN2 doesn’t get a vote in this matter, but the cable network is televising the game nationally and would probably prefer that one of the game’s most exciting players is in the lineup. The game won’t be blacked out in SportsNetLA markets, according to the Dodgers.

“He really wanted to play today,” Mattingly said of Puig. “I think we wanted to err on the side of caution today and kind of make sure, a little bit like Juan (Uribe) the other day in Arizona — he felt a little something but felt like he was ready to play today. At this point of the season it doesn’t seem like it’s worth it.”

This entry was posted in JP on the Dodgers and tagged , , , by J.P. Hoornstra. Bookmark the permalink.

About J.P. Hoornstra

J.P. Hoornstra covers the Dodgers, Angels and Major League Baseball for the Orange County Register, Los Angeles Daily News, Long Beach Press-Telegram, Torrance Daily Breeze, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star-News, San Bernardino Sun, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Whittier Daily News and Redlands Daily Facts. Before taking the beat in 2012, J.P. covered the NHL for four years. UCLA gave him a degree once upon a time; when he graduated on schedule, he missed getting Arnold Schwarzenegger's autograph on his diploma by five months.