Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
After sitting out yesterday, Yasiel Puig certainly made up for it today. Everything that Dodger fans love about him was on display. In the second inning, it looked like Miguel Montero had a sure double off of Beckett, but, well, this happened (GIF via Chad):
The game stayed quiet until the sixth. Dee Gordon singled, then Carl Crawford tripled. After Hanley Ramirez popped out, Kirk Gibson intentionally walked Adrian Gonzalez to get to Puig for some reason. He made them pay (GIF via Chad):
Here’s a good photo of the ensuing batflip from the game, since the TV broadcasts cut away early.
Even though Puig’s great game will grab most of the headlines, Josh Beckett‘s performance shouldn’t be overlooked. Beckett struck out seven batters and walked two, and only allowed one hit in five scoreless innings. His removal from the game was puzzling at first, but it was later revealed that Beckett is sick and could not pitch any longer. His stuff didn’t suffer too much; he missed spots here and there, but his pitches looked sharp in general. He was only really in trouble once, partially due to Tim Federowicz‘ second catchers interference in three games.
After Jamey Wright, Chris Perez, and J.P. Howell combined to give one run back, Kenley Jansen closed out the game by striking out the side on 11 pitches. Jansen is now up to 17.18 K/9 on the season and his xFIP is down to 1.49. Nothing is “wrong” with him. His usage in a three run game is a bit confusing, though. He has now pitched 13 times in the team’s first 19 games. If you can’t trust a pitcher to not allow three runs in an inning, that pitcher shouldn’t be on the roster. It seemed like a good opportunity to give Kenley a night off, but unfortunately nearly every manager in baseball would have made the same move.
The Dodgers are now 12-7 on the season and are eight games in front of the 5-16 Diamondbacks. Next up is the Phillies, who enter Dodger Stadium with Cliff Lee on the mound tomorrow night.
