By Jon Weisman
The St. Louis Cardinals seem to know how to get under Yasiel Puig’s skin. It’s not clear that the San Francisco Giants can. In fact, it might be quite the reverse.
Puig rankled some in the offseason by naming the Cardinals as the Dodgers’ “principal rival” instead of the Giants, but based on his first two seasons in the Majors, who can blame him? It doesn’t take away from the Giants’ World Series championship that St. Louis has caused Puig far more trouble.
Relatively, San Francisco has been a Bay Area breeze.
In 2014, Puig OPSed .999 against the Giants (.387 on-base percentage, .612 slugging). He reached base in all 14 of his starts against the Giants.
He had four triples against them — three in one game.
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He hit three homers against them as well, including one against Madison Bumgarner that left the lefty furious.
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The very next time Bumgarner faced Puig at Dodger Stadium, on September 23, he hit him with a pitch in the foot. Puig seemed less upset by the location than the words Bumgarner said afterward.
Had Puig overreacted? Maybe. Was he flustered? Uh, maybe not. Twenty-four hours later, Puig hit what proved to be the National League West-clinching home run, breaking a 1-1 tie in the sixth inning of the Dodgers’ 9-1 victory.
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In that same series, he had two huge throws — the Giants not letting anything like Puig’s reputation get in the way of their boldness on the basepaths.
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And of course, lest we forget, this was, as the kids say, straight trolling.
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So all that background brings us to this afternoon in sunny Scottsdale. It’s the Giants and the Dodgers. But it’s March. But it’s the first time they’ve played in nearly six months. But it’s March.
But it’s Puig.
The Arizona-based San Francisco fans are booing him at every opportunity. Here’s how Puig responds:
- Flying out to deep center in the top of the first.
- Making a textbook cutoff of a hit to right-center by Matt Duffy in the bottom of the second, holding him to first base.
- Throwing home in time to nail Duffy at home plate in the fifth inning (pictured at right, though home-plate umpire Ted Barrett didn’t oblige with the call)
- And third but not least, this:
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“All you ask is for the guy to be ready to go,” Don Mattingly told Ken Gurnick of MLB.com. The ball he cuts off in the gap is a great play. Maybe it doesn’t make SportsCenter, maybe you don’t notice, but it’s a great play. And the throw at the plate, we thought the guy was out. He looks really good.”
Fortunes will reverse at any moment, again and again, and this could be the year that the Cardinals feel Puig’s multipronged attack more than the Giants. But for now, all the magic San Francisco has had in the baseball world mostly just seems to vaporize at the feet of a certain Dodger outfielder.
byesac
Puig is a joy.
Mark Hagerstrom
Principle and personal rival for Puig. Our last two seasons have ended losing to the Cards and Yasiel has struck out in almost half of his PAs in those series.
oldbrooklynfan
Duffy was out on that play at home by Puig’s throw but it’s only spring training with out any replay. So it doesn’t pay to argue about it.