Dodgers’ Zack Greinke says calf injury is ‘pretty minor’

The Zack Greinke news did not come at a great moment for the Dodgers, Manager Don Mattingly acknowledged Wednesday.

The Cy Young front-runner was scratched from his Dodgers start Wednesday because of a right calf injury as his teammates tried to halt a four-game losing streak and step closer to the division title.

The silver lining was the Dodgers do not believe the right-hander’s injury is significant.

“It’s pretty minor,” Greinke said. “Just a little discomfort.”

Greinke said he felt tightness in his push-off leg during his last start. In that game, against the Pittsburgh Pirates, he went seven innings and allowed two runs. He struck out three.

The leg felt better as the game went on, but he said it was difficult to get loose. During the week, he apprised Mattingly of the situation.

“We were just hoping it would resolve over the week,” Mattingly said. “And for the most part it doesn’t feel very serious, but at this point we were like, we’re not going to take any chances with him.”

Greinke said the team is “just taking precautions.”

Neither Mattingly nor Greinke expect the right-hander to miss his next scheduled start, against the San Francisco Giants.

Greinke suffered from a right calf strain during spring training in 2014. That injury caused him to miss two weeks before the season started. Since then, he said, he has “sometimes” experienced the same discomfort, though he said the initial injury felt worse than his current one.

Greinke declined to elaborate on how the injury limited him. He did not say if it affected his ability to generate power while pushing off.

On Tuesday, Mattingly said he was comforted by the fact that Greinke was slated to pitch the next day to try to stop a losing streak.

Instead, Mattingly will use right-hander Carlos Frias.

The injury is concerning, Mattingly said, but “it’s always a little bit of a concern when he’s not going.”

Outfielder Carl Crawford was also out of the lineup Wednesday because of left shoulder bursitis. Crawford has also suffered from recent hamstring and back soreness.

Twitter: @zhelfand