Mark Saxon, ESPN Staff Writer 9y

Yasiel Puig and Joel Peralta could be DL-bound

SAN DIEGO -- The Los Angeles Dodgers are in limbo with a couple of players who are not on the disabled list, but are unlikely to be available to play in the remaining two games of this series.

Yasiel Puig left Friday night’s game after aggravating a tight left hamstring and was not in Saturday’s lineup. Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said he still doesn’t know whether Puig will be put on the 15-day DL.

“If it’s the best thing for him, then it’s the best thing,” Mattingly said. “We don’t sit here and fight with medical like, ‘We’ve got to have him in the lineup tomorrow.’ Obviously, he’s really important to us, but he’s not important if he can’t play.”

Puig received treatment and did not take on-field batting practice with the team.

Meanwhile, reliever Joel Peralta said he is experiencing a dead-arm sensation that he thinks stemmed from upper-back spasms and acknowledged the DL is a possibility. Peralta’s velocity topped out at 84 mph in his last outing Thursday in San Francisco.

“I try to throw the ball as hard as I can, and it’s not going hard,” Peralta said. “I couldn’t throw my fastball and I couldn’t control it, so we’ll see. The only way I can get better is by throwing, but I don’t know how competitive I’ll be right now. It could be five days or 15 days. We’ll see.”

The Dodgers could use Peralta’s 25-man roster spot to activate Scott Baker, who will start Sunday’s game. Baker flew from Omaha, where the team’s Triple-A Oklahoma City team was playing, and was set to arrive Saturday evening. Baker, a former member of the Minnesota Twins, was 1-1 with a 1.06 ERA in three minor-league starts.

The Dodgers’ have used the 25th spot on their roster as a revolving door, already employing three pitchers to make spot starts for injured starter Hyun-Jin Ryu. The previous two, David Huff and Mike Bolsinger, were immediately demoted after their starts. The Dodgers weren’t kidding this winter when they talked about “roster flexibility.”

“By not having just one guy we’ve been able, at times, to have extra relievers when we needed it, at times to have an extra player early on,” Mattingly said. “It just allows you to use that spot to have an extra guy.”

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