Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Yasiel Puig did Yasiel Puig things tonight, as he led the Dodgers to a 6-5 victory over the Marlins that didn’t come without some adversity (not caused by Puig, mind you).
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Puig went 1-for-3 with a home run (7), two walks and four RBI. The “unproven RBI guy” has a team-best 29 of them on the season. He has a 12-game hitting streak and has hit in 18 of his last 20 games. After a somewhat slow start (.235/.350/.373 through 17 games), he’s now the Dodgers’ most consistent offensive threat, thanks to the regressions of Adrian Gonzalez and Hanley Ramirez.
Dan Haren was mediocre early on. He gave up three runs, including an impressive home run to Christian Yelich. However, Haren was able to keep the Marlins at bay in his seven innings of work. He allowed seven hits, three runs, three earned runs, walked none and struck out two. He made just 92 pitches on the evening.
But no night in the 2014 Dodgers’ season would be complete without some kind of bullpen meltdown, this time courtesy of Brian Wilson. He gave up a 2-run home run to Reed Johnson (yes, Reed F. Johnson), which narrowed the Dodger lead to the eventual final score. Wilson now has a ridiculously bad 10.32 ERA. He’s either a terrible pitcher, or he’s hurt. Looking at his velocity, it seems the former is the case. Luckily, Kenley Jansen had a 1-2-3 ninth inning to close out the win. It was his sixth 1-2-3 outing in 22 appearances.
The Dodgers should get A.J. Ellis and/or Juan Uribe back in the next day or two. The offense is finally getting healthy, and with Matt Kemp and Puig playing every day, and Carl Crawford and Andre Ethier hitting well recently, perhaps this early season slump can finally turn around.
Now, only if the pitching could get healthy. And the bullpen stop sucking. Josh Beckett (0-1, 2.80 ERA) takes on Jacob Turner (0-0, 6.75 ERA) in the second game of the series. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. Pacific.
