As Dodgers manager Don Mattingly told reporters that young phenom Yasiel Puig might be feeling some effects from Tuesday night’s brawl with the Arizona Diamondbacks, out on the field Mattingly’s worst fears might have come to fruition.
Puig took only a handful of batting-practice swings before angrily gathering his bats and walking to the dugout, tossing them into the bat rack, then retreating to the Dodgers clubhouse with team trainers following behind.
The Dodgers sent out a revised lineup about an hour and a half before their game against the Arizona Diamondbacks without Puig, who has a strained right shoulder and is described as day-to-day.
The Dodgers’ new lineup looks like this:
Punto SS
Ellis 2B
Gonzalez 1B
Hairston LF
Uribe 3B
Ethier CF
Hernandez C
Castellanos RF
Ryu P
Before batting practice, Puig was rubbing and rotating his right shoulder as if to loosen it up. The 22-year-old Cuban sensation took a couple of hit-and-run swings in batting practice then seemingly attempted some regular swings. But he immediately shut down the session and went to the clubhouse.
Puig was hit in the face with a pitch thrown by Arizona’s Ian Kennedy on Tuesday night in the first of three hit batters that resulted in the bench-clearing melee. Puig was animatedly upset during the brawl and had to be restrained. He was one of six players and coaches ejected from the game.
In his first nine major-league games, Puig is batting .471 (16 for 34) with four home runs and 10 RBIs.