After Yasiel Puig’s latest incident with Madison Bumgarner, the Los Angeles Dodgers appear to be rallying behind the outfielder less than two months after demoting him to the minors
The Los Angeles Dodgers are getting closer to another division title in the NL West with their magic number sitting at just seven. Right now, they are matched up with the San Francisco Giants in a big three game set having split the first two. Game one had it’s own set of fireworks as Yasiel Puig and Madison Bumgarner had some words for each other after a Puig groundout.
You have to figure at some point when the benches clear because of these two teams, there may be some punches thrown.
Bumgarner told Puig not to look at him after he grounded out on a comebacker. That inspired a new shirt around the Dodgers clubhouse last night.
#PuigYourFriend #DontLookAtMe 👀 #Puignotlookingatyou 🙈 @JDL_87 @Adrian_ElTitan pic.twitter.com/2r1JULNyMK
— Yasiel Puig (@YasielPuig) September 20, 2016
Maybe this will provide a rallying cry for the Dodgers down the stretch as they still have to finish this series in LA and finish the season against the Giants in San Francisco.
For Puig, I think this was a good thing for him. I think he handled himself correctly. He didn’t fight Bumgarner, but instead defended himself properly. I’m not sure what Bumgarner has against him going back to the bat flip a couple of years ago, but I don’t think that happens if Justin Turner, for example, is the one who grounded out instead of Puig.
The Dodger outfielder has been splitting time in the outfield with a number of others, including deadline addition Josh Reddick, rookie Andrew Toles, Joc Pederson, Enrique Hernandez and the recently activated Andre Ethier. Since coming up at the beginning of September, Puig is batting .214 with a .324 on-base percentage while going deep three times in 28 at-bats. While his batting average and OBP are lower than at other points in the season, the small sample size has his OPS sitting at .895 which is the highest its been in any month since July of 2014.
It’s amazing isn’t it? A guy who’s struggled, gotten hurt, gotten demoted, deemed a clubhouse distraction and almost got traded in August is now a part of the rallying cry for the club as they go down the stretch of the season. That’s the highs and lows of baseball for you.