After loss, Hanley Ramirez gives Don Mattingly reason to smile

ST. LOUIS - It was a long day for Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly.

The Dodgers had to play 12 innings in stifling heat at Busch Stadium on Wednesday night, only to lose 3-2 to the St. Louis Cardinals. And Mattingly had been ejected in the 10th inning for arguing with home-plate umpire Jeff Kellogg about balls and strikes.

But after the game, as he sat in his office with a towel around his neck, Mattingly smiled as he talked about his newest player, Hanley Ramirez, who had two key hits in his first game after being traded from the Miami Marlins.

Ramirez tripled off the wall in his first at-bat and later had a run-scoring single.

“Hanley’s legit,” Mattingly said. “The ball jumps off his bat. At the end of the day that’s going to be a good trade. We got a good player today.”

Hanley and reliever Randy Choate came to the Dodgers in exchange for starting pitcher Nathan Eovaldi and minor-league pitcher Scott McGough.

Ramirez, who played third base, was batting .249 after the game, but said “I’ve been feeling pretty good lately” at the plate “and I just got to keep it up.”

The Dodgers are “have a great group of guys -- they go out there and play hard,” he said. “I’m happy here.”

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