Hanley Ramirez has thumb bruise

LOS ANGELES -- Hanley Ramirez, perhaps the most indispensable bat in the Dodgers' lineup, left Saturday night's game against the Colorado Rockies with a bruised right thumb.

Ramirez is officially listed day to day and X-rays were negative. The Dodgers said it had nothing to do with Ramirez's right thumb injury from a year ago, which kept him out nearly a month into the season.

Ramirez hit a run-scoring ground ball in the third inning, but returned to the dugout shaking his right hand. Ramirez tried several times to grip a bat for head trainer Stan Conte in the dugout but winced as he did so.

After the game, Ramirez tried to evade questions about the injury, giving short answers as he backed his way away from reporters and out of the clubhouse.

"I'm good," he said. "It's just sore. It got jammed and it went numb. I couldn't grip the ball. That's it. It's just bruised."

Ramirez said the area, near where the thumb meets the hand, was still numb as he left the stadium, but he said he would have plenty of time to recover since Sunday was a scheduled day off for him anyway.

"He was off anyway [Sunday]. We talked about that five days ago," manager Don Mattingly said. "Combine that with the off day [Monday] and the night game [Tuesday] and it's almost three whole days off."

Ramirez injured his right thumb last spring while playing for the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic and ended up missing the start of the season. He didn't return until April 29, when he quickly established himself as the team's most potent offensive threat, finishing the season with a .345 batting average, .402 on-base percentage and .638 slugging percentage, along with 20 home runs and 57 RBIs.

This season, Ramirez is hitting .272, with a .356 on-base percentage. He leads the majors with 11 doubles, adding to that total in his first at-bat Saturday before the injury. Ramirez has been hot lately after an extended slump, going 8-for-20 with four doubles and a home run in his past five games.

Dating back to last season, the Dodgers are 63-37 (.630) with Ramirez in the starting lineup and 42-44 (.488) without him as a starter.