MLB cooperates with fed probe into Ramirez’s drug

NEW YORK (AP) – Major League Baseball is cooperating with a federal investigation into where Manny Ramirez got the performance-enhancing drug that resulted in his 50-game suspension.

The Drug Enforcement Administration is checking whether a doctor in Miami and his son were the source of the drug, ESPN reported Thursday.

MLB president Bob DuPuy confirmed that baseball’s department of investigations was working with the DEA. MLB had no additional comment on the probe.

Ramirez was suspended in May for violating baseball’s drug rules and can rejoin the Los Angeles Dodgers on July 3.

The slugging outfielder is playing three games this week with the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate in Albuquerque, N.M. He was not available for comment before Thursday night’s game.

ESPN said investigators suspect the prescription for HCG, or human chorionic gonadotropin, was written Pedro Publio Bosch, a doctor in Florida since 1976. His son, Anthony Bosch, supposedly worked as a go-between for the doctor and Ramirez, ESPN said.

HCG was added to baseball’s banned substances list last year. It is popular among users of performance-enhancing drugs because it can lessen the side effects of ending a cycle of steroids.