Dodgers hope Hanley Ramirez can return this weekend

The Dodgers hope shortstop Hanley Ramirez can return to their lineup this weekend after an MRI examination showed no damage to his previously injured left hamstring.

The team does not plan to put Ramirez on the disabled list, Manager Don Mattingly said Monday.

“I think it makes everybody feel better that this is not another 15 days,” Mattingly said. “It may be four or five.”

Ramirez has played in nine of the Dodgers’ first 63 games. He made his season debut April 29, after surgery to repair a torn ligament in his right thumb. In his fourth game, he strained his left hamstring.

After another month on the disabled list, he played two games, then reported stiffness in the hamstring. The Dodgers have used him as a pinch-hitter in three of the last four games, meaning they would have delayed his return by four days had they put him on the disabled list.

Ramirez is batting .350 in his nine games, with four extra-base hits. He has hit at least 10 home runs in each of the previous seven seasons; the Dodgers entered play Monday with fewer home runs than any National League team except the Miami Marlins.

Ramirez said he expects to be an impact hitter upon his return.

“You can see how I’ve been swinging,” he said. “I’m feeling good. It’s just a problem with my leg.”

Ramirez said the Dodgers told him not to run for another two days and said he believed he could play thereafter.

“We’re learning not to listen to Hanley,” Mattingly said.

The Dodgers hope catcher A.J. Ellis can return from the disabled list Friday and center fielder Matt Kemp can follow next week. Ellis said he would start a minor league rehabilitation assignment Tuesday; Mattingly said Kemp could do so as soon as Friday.