LOS ANGELES -- Yet again it is a hamstring strain keeping Yasiel Puig out of the Los Angeles Dodgers' lineup and on the disabled list.
The team placed its star right fielder on the DL prior to Friday's 4-1 win over the Chicago Cubs at Dodger Stadium. Infielder Jose Peraza was recalled to replace Puig.
Puig missed 39 games early in the season with a left hamstring strain, and he had already missed three games during the most recent road trip because of this right hamstring strain. On Sunday in Cincinnati, he re-aggravated that injury and had to come out of the game after beating out an infield single in the ninth inning. He had an MRI Friday, and the team's medical staff did not think Puig would be ready to play within the week, so he was placed on the DL despite the team believing he could be ready to play within the next 15 days.
"We're kind of in that area where we could wait four or five days without putting him the DL and play short, but we feel like it's going to be more than 10 days," manager Don Mattingly said. "That was over the tipping point."
Puig told reporters Sunday that the injury felt worse than when he originally tweaked it in Oakland on Aug. 18. Mattingly was hopeful the injury could be healed within two weeks, though, and that the team would not have to extend Puig's DL stint beyond the minimum 15 days.
"That's one thing you don't know with a hamstring," Mattingly said. "We'll see where we're at. Last time it was a couple days in Oakland, and it was good for a while.
"We hope [it is] not [as severe as the left hamstring strain]. I haven't gotten anything back from [trainer] Stan [Conte] that's going to tell me that it's going to be five weeks or anything. Stan is basically saying it's going to be more than 10 days, and we kind of figured that yesterday."
Puig has played in just 77 of the team's 126 games, and despite his .256/.324/.440 slash line and mediocre 109 adjusted OPS -- 100 is league average -- the Dodgers are 38-32 when he starts in right field. Puig has been much better lately, batting .342/.390/.526 with two home runs in his past 10 games -- a sign he might be breaking out of his mostly season-long funk, to which his hamstring issues have certainly contributed.
Another important piece to the Dodgers' lineup, second baseman Howie Kendrick, is already on the DL with a hamstring injury and had been making progress toward a rehab assignment starting this weekend. However, Kendrick "has plateaued a bit" to the point where he can't break past being 90-95 percent healthy; the team had targeted Sunday as his possible rehab assignment start date, but that won't be happening.
Peraza, called up from Triple-A Oklahoma City, made his major league debut on Aug. 10 and appeared in two games with the Dodgers after being acquired from Atlanta as part of an eight-player trade on July 30.
He has hit .293 with 33 stolen bases, four homers and 42 RBIs in 118 combined games with Atlanta's Triple-A Gwinett and Oklahoma City this season.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.