Guerrier exits after hit on thumb with comebacker

LOS ANGELES — The comebacker that struck Matt Guerrier’s right thumb in the fifth inning of Tuesday’s 9-7 win over the Padres left the reliever’s right hand swollen and the fingernail on his thumb mangled.

X-rays on Guerrier’s thumb were negative and the swelling had gone down after the game.

“It hurts,” Guerrier said, pointing to the thumb on his pitching hand. “It hit the nail and pushed it back a little bit. I don’t know how it did, but it hit both of those spots pretty good.”

Guerrier relieved starter Ted Lilly in the top of the fifth with the Dodgers trailing, 5-2. With two out and a runner on first, Padres catcher Yasmani Grandal hit a hard liner right at Guerrier, who knocked the ball down and got the out at first to end the frame.

Guerrier walked off the field and headed straight for the Dodgers’ clubhouse, accompanied by head athletic trainer Sue Falsone.

After the game, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said he was unsure whether Guerrier would require a stint on the disabled list.

“He’s going to have some swelling,” the manager said. “His nail got torn up a little bit. We’ll see what goes on with that.”

LOS ANGELES — Hanley Ramirez is as convinced as he can be that, after a three-game rehab assignment, he’s healthy enough for another return to the Dodgers lineup.

Ramirez was activated to start at shortstop and bat cleanup Tuesday night, having recovered from a left hamstring strain he suffered four games after returning from right thumb surgery. He missed 28 games with the hamstring and 24 with the thumb. To make room, the Dodgers placed pitcher Chris Capuano on the disabled list with a strained lat muscle.

Ramirez said he ran at “120 percent” over the weekend and “nothing, I didn’t feel anything. Maybe up here it’s different. I just got to be smart.”

That was the theme of Ramirez’s second return, voiced as well by manager Don Mattingly.

“I talked to him about not trying to go wild,” Mattingly said. “We have to try to make sure he plays under control. It’s hard.”

Ramirez agrees. It’s hard to play under control, but he needs to try.

“I think when I’m out there, I’m always 110 percent,” he said. “Going first to third, or going from second I want to score. Let’s see how it goes.”

Ramirez said his thumb has continued to heal and Monday night was the first time he played without need of a plastic splint or excess tape.

LOS ANGELES — Chris Capuano was questionable to make his scheduled start on Saturday, so the Dodgers placed the left-hander on the 15-day disabled list on Tuesday.

Capuano was unable to make his scheduled start on Monday and, after an MRI revealed a lat strain in his left shoulder, the Dodgers elected to place Capuano on the DL. He suffered the injury during his start on Wednesday in Anaheim, and originally thought the strain was in his triceps.

Capuano threw over the weekend during a series in Colorado, but experienced discomfort and was scratched from Monday’s start.

“I think it just didn’t get better,” manager Don Mattingly said before Tuesday’s game against the Padres. “We learned enough to make this Saturday be questionable and that was enough for us.”

Stephen Fife was called up from Triple-A Albuquerque on Monday to replace Capuano in the rotation and pitched 5 1/3 innings of one-run ball to beat the Padres for his first Major League victory. Fife is scheduled to start again on Saturday.

Capuano is 1-4 with a 5.45 ERA in eight appearances this season, including six starts. This is his second stint on the disabled list this year. Capuano previously missed two weeks with a strained left calf.

In a corresponding roster move, the Dodgers activated Hanley Ramirez from the disabled list. He started at shortstop and batted cleanup against Padres left-hander Clayton Richard. Ramirez missed 28 games with a strained left hamstring.

LOS ANGELES — Injured right-hander Josh Beckett visited a nerve specialist on Monday and was diagnosed with irritation of an upper arm nerve that causes numbness in his right hand and fingers. The veteran starter will not throw for at least four weeks.

Beckett had been experiencing a numbing sensation in the fingers of his pitching hand for much of the season. Last week, Beckett said he continued to pitch because the Dodgers were short on starters earlier in the season after losing Chad Billingsley for the year and being burdened by Zack Greinke’s broken left collarbone.

Beckett, on the disabled list with a left groin strain, had his throwing program shut down two weeks ago because the numbness in his fingers continued during a bullpen session. Beckett is 0-5 with a 5.19 ERA in eight starts this season.

Beckett visited Gregory Pearl in Dallas, the same surgeon who operated on Cardinals pitcher Chris Carpenter’s right shoulder last season. Beckett is expected to return to Dodger Stadium on Wednesday.

LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers will see Carlos Quentin in the batter’s box on Tuesday for the first time since the Padres’ outfielder broke Zack Greinke’s left collarbone during a benches-clearing incident in San Diego on April 11. But Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said he doesn’t expect any retaliation.

Mattingly said he doesn’t think about the incident that kept Greinke sidelined for over a month and saw Quentin suspended for eight games, except when the media brings it up.

“I don’t really want to stir it back up,” the manager said.

The last time the Dodgers saw Quentin at the plate, Greinke hit him with a pitch and he charged the mound. Quentin barreled into the Dodgers’ $147 million starter.

Quentin didn’t travel with the Padres to Dodger Stadium for a three-game series April 15-18 because he was serving his suspension. He was held out of Monday’s opener because of a sore left shoulder, the result of a collision with the outfield wall on Sunday night in San Diego. Quentin started in left field Tuesday and hit cleanup against Dodgers left-hander Ted Lilly.

Mattingly said his club is going to try to get Quentin out, even if that means pitching inside, and noted Quentin led the Major Leagues in being hit by pitches each of the past two seasons.

“I don’t really anticipate anything,” Mattingly said. “He gets hit a lot. If he gets hit, he gets hit. I don’t mean that in a bad way. But it’s the way you’ve got to pitch him.

“And if we get somebody hit, I’m not going to look at it like, ‘OK we’re starting a war here.’ They’re going to try and get us out and pitching in is part of that. You know when somebody is throwing at somebody. It’s not really that hard to figure out. So if that’s going on, that’s going on. I don’t anticipate it. I anticipate us trying to get him out.”

Greinke and Quentin have since discussed the incident, and Mattingly said he doesn’t get the sense that there will be any carryover.

“I really just don’t think it’s that big of an issue, I really don’t,” Mattingly said. “Maybe I’m underscoring it or underplaying it. It just doesn’t feel like an issue.”