Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Hanley Ramirez is injured and not in tonight’s lineup. I know.
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Dodgers
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Brewers
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4:10 p.m. PT
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Milwaukee, Wi.
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2B
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Gordon
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CF
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Gomez
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CF
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Puig
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C
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Lucroy
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1B
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Gonzalez
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RF
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Braun
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RF
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Kemp
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3B
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Ramirez
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LF
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Crawford
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2B
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Gennett
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3B
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Uribe
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LF
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Davis
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C
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Ellis
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1B
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Reynolds
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SS
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Rojas
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C
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Segura
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P
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Greinke (R)
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P
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Fiers (R)
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I’ve been running this ongoing chart about all of the different games Ramirez has missed, but I just don’t have it in me to do it again today. He’s fragile. He’s not to be counted on. Oh, and he’s actively hurting things, according to Dylan Hernandez:
There were times this season when the Dodgers wanted to put Hanley Ramirez on the disabled list. Each time, he refused.
On Friday afternoon, Ramirez felt his right side tighten as he warmed up in an indoor batting cage at Miller Park. Again, he insisted on playing.
Ramirez didn’t make it out of the first inning. That led to Miguel Rojas hitting cleanup, and Justin Turner‘s “defense.” We’ve been over this so many times: I really, truly despise the “tough it out” culture in baseball that leads to minor injuries becoming serious ones — looking at you, Ross Stripling — and diminished capacity hurting the team, as we’ve seen a million times. The rush to be “tough” hurts everyone. Now, it sounds like Ramirez has an oblique injury, with Don Mattingly saying “it sounds pretty serious.” Those are usually measured in weeks, not days.
Rojas is one of the worst hitters in baseball, but in some sense I almost wonder if the Dodgers are better off with him in the lineup. He’s a fantastic fielder, an enormous upgrade over Ramirez. That’s not the same as wanting Ramirez on the bench; I don’t. I just think we’re not that comfortable with a healthy Ramirez in the field, and a limited one is a terrifying prospect. Anyway, discussions about the long-term future of the position with Ramirez unsigned past 2014 are premature with the pennant race looming. For now, the best the team can do is limp along with Ramirez and make the best of it with Rojas, or Erisbel Arruebarrena, or Darwin Barney, or Alex Guerrero, etc. I imagine we’ll see one of them joining the team either Sunday in Milwaukee, or Monday in Atlanta.
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