Mar 30, 2014; San Diego, CA, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers right fielder Yasiel Puig (66) strikes out in the first inning on the opening day baseball game against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports
The first state-side regular season game isn’t even in the books yet, and Yasiel Puig is already driving Bill Plaschke nuts.
Note Plaschke’s tweet from early in the Sunday night Dodgers-Padres game:
First inning of domestic season opener not yet finished, and Puig already struck out wildly and missed a cutoff man....just sayin..
— Bill Plaschke (@BillPlaschke) March 31, 2014
The cut off man play Plaschke refers to saw Puig fielding a Chris Denorfia single and firing the ball toward third in an attempt to gun down the Padres’ Everth Cabrera, a decision that allowed Denorfia to move up to second base.
So thanks to Puig’s imprudence, the Padres had runners at second and third instead of first and third. On that play, it looked like the throw might have had a chance to get Cabrera at third had Hanley Ramirez elected not to cut it off at short.
Luckily for the Dodgers, Hyun-Jin Ryu was able to wriggle off the hook with help from a double play he himself started on a comebacker to the mound.
When fans fired back at Plaschke for his possibly overwrought rip of Puig, he replied with predictable defensiveness:
I know, I know how dare I question young Yasiel so early...but c'mon..at this rate he will miss cutoff man approx 967 times this year
— Bill Plaschke (@BillPlaschke) March 31, 2014
Not three days ago, Plaschke wrote a column called “Yasiel Puig needs to learn a tough lesson from the Dodgers.” Just in case you were hazy on where Plaschke stands in regards to Puig and his “disruptive” influence on the Dodgers.
He’s not pro-Puig.
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