August 14th, 2013 at 6:00 am 
by Ron Cervenka Although it has been speculated for several days now that Dodger shortstop Hanley Ramirez would return to the Dodger line-up sometime this week, Dodger manager Don Mattingly has been reluctant to say exactly when – until now.
During his pre-game interview prior to Tuesday night’s game, Mattingly finally spilled the beans saying that Ramirez would be available to pinch hit Tuesday night if needed and would be in the starting line-up in Wednesday night’s series finale against the Mets at Dodger Stadium.
“There are really no issues right now,” Mattingly told the gathered media, referring to the fact that Ramirez has been working out at shortstop and took full batting practice for the past two days without any setbacks.
Although fielding ground balls was never really an issue for Hanley Ramirez…
…throwing the ball was. Because Ramirez came out of Tuesday’s workout pain-free, the decision was made to have him return to the Dodger line-up on Wednesday instead of Friday. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)
The original plan was to return Ramirez to the line-up on Friday in Philadelphia following Thursday’s off day, but Dodgers Vice President of Medical Services Stan Conte decided that a better plan would be for Ramirez to play on Wednesday and use Thursday to evaluate his recovery.
Ramirez jammed his right shoulder on August 4 in Chicago when he landed in the stands after making a catch in foul territory. Ramirez was not given an MRI nor was he placed on the 15-day DL. He will have missed nine games when he starts on Wednesday night and will probably only play a few innings. Ramirez was not called upon to pinch hit in Tuesday night’s 4-2 win over the Mets.
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I will definitely be watching tonight’s game with bated breath. Earlier the same day that Ramirez took his dive into the seats in Wrigley I casually commented to a friend that the only thing that could detain this team is . . . .(gulp) injury. Although they haven’t missed a beat against good teams (with the exception of the one bad game in STL), I would love to have Ramirez and Kemp honing details during this period and getting back into the rhythm. They have a very favorable schedule for the rest of this month and I hope they have the opportunity to use it to get these guys back on the top of their game. With Kemp and Ramirez hitting their stride in that lineup in September — lookout!! Isn’t winning fun?
RT @Think_BlueLA: New post – Ramirez to return to line-up for series finale vs. Mets
Just don’t rush it. Be sure. The replacement players are more than doing their share. I expect it is unfair to call them replacements with the number of games and AB’s they are accumulating.
I have gotten on Ned’s case many times but he has done a good job with bench players – Punto, Schumaker, Hairston, Federowicz. If everyone gets healthy the team should always have a big bat to come off the bench.