The star is Clayton Kershaw, and now is the time for the Dodgers to rally around their injured leading man. There is one name that has dropped off the Dodgers’ marquee this season, the guy that for so long dominated the spotlight. He has almost become an afterthought, behind all the emerging stars, buried at the bottom of the batting order.
This week, at least, Yasiel Puig reclaimed his old role as a leading man. On Tuesday, Puig had three hits, prevented a runner from taking an extra base, and drove in the run that put the Dodgers ahead for good in a 6-2 victory over the Minnesota Twins at Dodger Stadium.
For all the grief that Puig has taken in his career for not always having his head in the game, he is simply a player. The Twins’ manager, Paul Molitor, cost his team a player by fouling up a double switch. The game was delayed 18 minutes because Molitor apparently did not list his substitutions properly. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts pointed that out, and mass deliberations ensued.
Molitor did not mean to take out his left fielder, but he apparently listed it that way. The umpires forced him to remove one of his best hitters, left fielder Eddie Rosario, and the Twins had to use infielder Ehire Adrianza there. The Dodgers won their fourth consecutive game, and 35th of their past 41. They also expanded their National League West lead to 12{ games – and they built that cushion only five weeks after moving into first place.
On Monday, Puig saved the Dodgers on defense twice, in the same inning. He was the only man in the starting lineup not to make an out against the ancient one, Bartolo Colon. On Tuesday, his second hit broke a 1-1 tie.
Puig has driven in 49 runs this season, even though the Dodgers largely have dropped him to the No. 8 spot in the batting order. The only Dodgers to drive in more runs this season: Seager, with 50, and Bellinger, with 67.
If Puig is the previously heralded star, Chris Taylor is the entirely unheralded one.
Taylor, acquired from the Seattle Mariners last year in a minor league trade for fallen prospect Zach Lee, doubled twice, drove in three runs and lifted his batting average to .321 overall and .447 this month.
“You don’t know what this young man’s ceiling is,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I think the beautiful thing is he just continues to go out there and tries to compete and perform. He keeps getting big hits.
“He also making great defensive plays out there — saving runs, scoring runs, driving in runs. He’s a wonderful player.”
Lee never did pitch for the Mariners, but he went 0-9 for their triple-A team. Taylor never did play outfield for the Mariners, but he has anchored himself with the Dodgers, as a starting outfielder and leadoff batter for the team with baseball’s best record and highest payroll.
Whatever Andrew Friedman and his baseball operations lieutenants do at the trade deadline, they cannot possibly hope to win a trade any more thoroughly than they appear to have won this one. For all the legitimate talk about the Dodgers’ pitching depth, they appear tapped out for the moment, pending whatever might happen at the deadline. With Kershaw and Brandon McCarthy joining the disabled list Monday, the Dodgers plan to fill the immediate vacancy in their starting rotation with long reliever Brock Stewart, who last started a game June 11, in the Pacific Coast League.
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