Don Mattingly: 'We can't continue to play short'

It was a tough Sunday for the Dodgers both on the field and in the trainers room, as the Dodgers were drubbed 8-1 by the Braves in the series finale and the team was without Hanley Ramirez and Andre Ethier for the series finale. A frustrated Don Mattingly hinted that roster moves could be coming Monday.

"We can't continue to play short. I played with two extras today and a backup catcher. You can't play in a National League game like that," Mattingly said after the game. "You can get away with it in the American League, but we can't continue to do this. If you can't play you've got to go on the DL."

Ethier was unavailable Sunday after fouling ball off the arch of his foot on Saturday.

"He tried to swing early in the day and wasn't able to do it," Mattingly said. "I don't know where we'll be tomorrow with that."

Ramirez was scheduled for an MRI on Sunday after being held out of the lineup for a fourth consecutive day, but the results weren't yet known after the game.

We probably won't know until Monday whether Ramirez or Ethier need to be placed on the disabled list, but at the very least the team could option Matt Magill to Triple-A Albuquerque and call up either an extra position player (40-man possibilities include Alex Castellanos, Elian Herrera, Justin Sellers or Dee Gordon) or relief pitcher (healthy 40-man options are Josh Wall, Chris Withrow or Steven Ames) until Chris Capuano is ready to return to the rotation..

"We've talked about it, trying to get an extra guy," Mattingly said. "It's what we've been doing, we've been juggling. You're trying to move a piece to get an extra couple of days out of the pen, you try to move a piece to maybe get guy three days so he'll be healthy. It's been a circus with balls in the air all the time and you try to juggle. ... I know it's nobody's fault, but it just has been."

As for Magill, it was his second consecutive blow up start.

"It's fairly tough to watch. It's an emergency start for the kid and he has to come up," Mattingly said. "He flies in yesterday, and it isn't the greatest situation for him either. But it is opportunity and you have to try to take advantage of that."

Yasiel Puig played two innings in center field on Sunday, and he might see more action at the position, especially starting, which would open up the Dodgers' flexibility in the outfield.

"I wanted to see him out there a little bit and see what it looked like," Mattingly said. "Because if it's an everyday basis, you know, I wanted to see him."

If we took away Puig's four home runs, his on-base percentage would still be .400. Let, despite hitting leadoff all week the only four runs he scored came on his own home runs. Mattingly said given the lineup's shortcomings on Sunday he almost batted Puig at cleanup, and may consider moving him into the middle of the order in the coming days.

Up next

Clayton Kershaw is back on the mound on Monday as the Dodgers open a series against the Diamondbacks. Wade Miley gets the call for the Diamondbacks.