I happened to have on the Dodgers-Padres game on Sunday, and in the ninth inning of a tied game, Los Angeles’ A.J. Ellis laid down a sacrifice bunt attempt with Yasiel Puig on second base and no outs. Ellis executed the bunt as he was supposed to, forcing San Diego third baseman Yangervis Solarte to make the play… and Puig didn’t move.
Yes, bunts are lame, but there’s still no excuse for Puig to not get to third base on the play, and it left Ellis very confused as he ran down the first base line:
Aj Ellis lays down a bunt, Puig doesn’t move, and Ellis is v confused. pic.twitter.com/xJLi9NpZcb
— Matt Clapp (@TheBlogfines) May 22, 2016
Well on Tuesday night against the Cincinnati Reds, Puig had another, “Eh, I’m good” moment when it came to baserunning. In the bottom of the sixth, Puig hit a flyball to deep right-center field that hit off the wall, and he then stood at home plate admiring what turned out to be a long single:
RBI single off the RF wall for Yasiel Puig who can tell you all about it because he stood near home plate and watched it. — Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) May 25, 2016
Yasiel Puig pimps a single off the right field wall as his batting line climbs to .247/.289/.382.
— Drew Silva (@drewsilv) May 25, 2016
The next half inning, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts removed Puig from the game for not running out the flyball. Roberts explained the decision in his postgame press conference:
Puig removed from game because Roberts said “he needed to be on 2B”, saying “we talk about playing the game the right way”. — Alanna Rizzo (@alannarizzo) May 25, 2016
Puig told the media that not running out the flyball was a “bad decision” on his part, and supported Roberts’ decision to remove him from the game:
Puig thru interpreter: “It was a bad decision on my part. It was a good decision on his part because all my teammates were playing hard.”
— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) May 25, 2016
So, Puig at least admitted that he made a mistake, but we’ll have to wait and see if it was really a lesson learned for the highly interesting 25-year-old outfielder.