Andre Ethier to miss a few days with ankle injury; two called up

Players are falling so fast, the Dodgers are still calling up fresh bodies in the middle of September.

Andre Ethier and Hanley Ramirez were out of the lineup Saturday, and Matt Kemp remained in Arizona testing his sore hamstring, so the Dodgers called up outfielders Alex Castellanos and Nick Buss from triple-A Albuquerque.

Ethier left Friday’s game after aggravating a sore left ankle, and Manager Don Mattingly said Saturday the outfielder would miss at least a few days. Mattingly said the training staff described the injury as like having shin splints on the outside of the ankle.

“It’s probably a little more sore today than he’s been,” Mattingly said. “You’d think at least a few days for him.”

Mattingly said earlier in the week that Ethier had had an MRI exam and an X-ray on the ankle.

“All the kind of stuff that could be serious has been ruled out,” the manager said. “We do feel like some rest is going to make this a lot better.”

Shin splints can linger, but Mattingly seemed confident he would get Ethier back in plenty of time to have him sharp for the playoffs. The Dodgers have 15 regular-season games remaining.

The news on Ramirez was slightly better. The shortstop said he had a couple of cortisone injections for a nerve in his lower back that causes leg pain and was already feeling greatly improved.

Ramirez said he was sore from the injections, but that the back and leg were much better.

“Everything else feels good,” he said. “A couple of days.”

Ramirez spent 15 days on the disabled list in 2011 with the same issue, and it’s been bothering him to some degree ever since. He said he’s received regular acupuncture treatments since joining the Dodgers to help keep the nerve pain at bay.

“I knew it was the nerve because I was feeling a little tingling down in my legs,” he said. “I keep playing like that. I just got to a point that I told myself that I had to tell them what was going on and see if we can fix it for the playoffs. I don’t want to be like this.”

Ramirez came out of Thursday’s game with what at the time was called mild hamstring tightness.

With their depth hurting, the Dodgers called up Castellanos and Buss. To add Buss to the 40-man roster, the team had to transfer reliever Jose Dominguez (strained quad) to the 60-day disabled list.

The 26-year-old Buss, who will be making his major league debut, batted .303 with 17 homers and 100 RBIs in 131 games for Albuquerque. Castellanos, who was up briefly earlier this season, hit .257 with 19 home runs and 61 RBIs in 105 games with Albuquerque.

Both outfielders had been working out at the team’s training facility in Arizona.