Dodgers’ Yasiel Puig offers no promises of playing again this year

As the Dodgers moved another day closer to an anticipated third consecutive division title Monday night, Yasiel Puig was again a spectator.

“It’s hard to be there on the bench watching the games,” Puig said in Spanish.

Perched on the far end of the bench for parts of an 8-4 defeat to the Arizona Diamonbacks at Dodger Stadium, Puig was uncertain if he would be doing anything else in the coming weeks.

He made no promises about playing again this year, whether in the regular season or the playoffs.

“It all depends on my leg and the doctors,” he said.

Only 13 games remain in the regular season.

The last time Puig played in a game was on Aug. 27, when he strained his right hamstring in Cincinnati. He was placed on the disabled list the next day.

Puig has also experienced problems recently with his left hamstring, which sidelined him for five weeks earlier in the season.

Puig said he feels discomfort when he runs, but smiled and joked, “If I can run like Adrian Gonzalez, that’s enough.”

Gonzalez is one of the slower players on the team.

In more serious moments, Puig said he is prepared to be in an unfamiliar role if he makes the team’s 25-man postseason roster.

“I’ll be there to do what is needed, whether it’s pinch-hitting or play as a defensive replacement in the ninth inning,” he said. “Whatever they need me to do, I’ll do.”

He said he feels he owes that to his teammates.

“It’s because of them I’ll be in the playoffs for the third consecutive time,” he said. “I haven’t been able to play much and they’ve taken us there.”

Even after dropping their series opener to the Diamondbacks, the Dodgers are 15-8 since he returned to the disabled list. They hold a seven-game lead over the second-place San Francisco Giants in the National League West. Their magic number to win the division is at seven.

Andre Ethier, who has started the majority of games in right field in his absence, is batting .294.

Puig has played only 77 games this season, batting .256 with 11 home runs and 38 runs batted in.

“Every time my hitting starts to pick up, I get hurt,” he said.

Puig participated in on-field batting practice Monday, launching one baseball more than halfway up the left-field pavilion.

He said he plans to face live pitching starting Thursday at the Dodgers’ spring-training complex in Arizona.

“All I can do is prepare,” he said.

In the meantime, the Dodgers will continue their march to the postseason.

They scored twice in the first inning Monday, first on a solo home run by Gonzalez and again on a double by rookie Corey Seager.

The 2-0 lead vanished over the next few innings. The Diamondbacks tied the score, 2-2, when Brett Anderson served up a solo home run to Yasmany Tomas in the fourth inning.

Anderson failed to complete the fifth inning, as he allowed the Diamondbacks to score three more runs and take a 5-2 lead. The three-run surge was started by a solo home run by Aaron Hill.

Anderson was charged with five runs and 10 hits over 42/3 innings.

Paul Goldschmidt launched the Diamondbacks’ third solo home run of the game in the eighth inning, golfing a low-and-in pitch by Joel Peralta over the left-field wall to increase his team’s lead to 6-2.

Yasmani Grandal reduced the deficit to 6-4 in the bottom of the inning by blasting a two-run home run off Matt Reynolds. The home run was Grandal’s 16th, establishing a new single-season career-high.

The home run was Grandal’s first since Aug. 1.

Up next

Left-hander Alex Wood (11-10, 3.63 ERA) will face left-hander Robbie Ray (4-12, 3.72) and the Diamondbacks on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Dodger Stadium. TV: SportsNet LA; Radio: 570, 1020.

dylan.hernandez@latimes.com

Twitter: @dylanohernandez

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