Last year, Linsanity took over New York. This year, Puigmania is taking over Los Angeles.
Yasiel Puig, one of the Dodgers most highly-touted prospects, made his major league debut last Monday and has been making headlines since. Similarly to how Jeremy Lin could seemingly do no wrong during a two week span last season with the Knicks, that seems to be the case with Puig and the Dodgers right now.
Puig, a 22-year old outfielder, went 2-for-4 in his debut, and followed that up with two home runs and five RBIs the next night. After an 0-for-4 performance on Wednesday, Puig had a grand slam on Thursday and a solo shot on Friday. In his seven games last week, Puig had 13 hits in 28 at bats, including multiple hits in five games.
True, the Dodgers are 27-35 and in last place in the NL West. But they’re 7½ games back, and will have plenty of chances to face their divisional rivals and gain ground. They went 4-3 last week and things are looking much brighter in Hollywood now that Puig has arrived.
1) Cardinals (41-22) (1)
Took two of three from the Reds to stay atop the NL Central. Fun fact: The Cardinals have only lost two series all year (14-2-4), and both were in April (@Diamondbacks, vs. Pirates).
2) Red Sox (39-25) (2)
Took two of three from the Rangers and Angels last week, but could be without ace Clay Buchholz (9-0, 1.71 ERA) for a while as he deals with a neck injury.
3) Braves (39-24) (5)
At 39-24, the Braves are the only team in the NL East above .500, and their 7½ game division lead is the largest in baseball.
4) Athletics (38-27) (7)
Are putting the heat on the Rangers, with help from Bartolo Colon (7-2), who has allowed one run in winning his last three starts (23 innings).
5) Yankees (37-26) (12)
After a 1-6 record the previous week, the Yankees went 6-1 last week, including taking three of four from the Mariners on the first leg of their 10-game road trip.
6) Pirates (37-26) (3)
In his nine years in the big leagues before this season, Jason Grilli had five saves. He leads the NL with 23 and has allowed three runs this season.
7) Reds (37-26) (4)
Have to do better than 3-6 against the Cardinals if they want to win the NL Central again.
8) Tigers (35-26) (13)
A three-game sweep of the Indians gave turned their 2½ game Central Division lead into 5½ games.
9) Orioles (35-28) (6)
The Orioles play the next six games at home but might prefer the road where they are 20-15.
10) Rangers (37-25) (10)
A 6-4 win over the Blue Jays on Sunday salvaged the final game of a road trip in which they went 2-4.
11) Rays (34-28) (8)
Cy Young candidate Matt Moore finally looked human last week. He went 0-2 while allowing 15 runs in nine innings, including six walks in one of those starts.
12) Giants (33-29) (14)
Hunter Pence is the only Giant with 10 or more home runs. He has 10 of the team’s 47 home runs.
13) Diamondbacks (35-28) (9)
Had a difficult week with seven games against the Cardinals and Giants and went 3-4, as the Giants cut Arizona’s NL West lead to 1½ games.
14) Rockies (34-30) (15)
Colorado suffered a 6-5 12-inning loss to the Padres on Thursday and has a league-worst seven losses in extra innings.
15) Nationals (31-31) (17)
Stephen who? Strasburg may not be having a good year but Jordan Zimmermann is 9-3 with a 2.00 ERA after another stellar performance on Sunday in a 7-0 win over the Twins.
16) Indians (30-32) (11)
Have lost seven in a row and are an MLB-worst 4-15 since May 21.
17) Royals (28-32) (23)
All of a sudden they have won five in a row after a sweep of the Astros.
18) Padres (29-34) (18)
Jason Marquis, a Manhasset, NY native, is 7-2 after winning six decisions in a row.
19) Phillies (31-33) (16)
After a five game winning streak, the Phillies have dropped three in a row to the lowly Brewers.
20) Mariners (27-37) (20)
Jeremy Bonderman earned his first win since 2010 against the Yankees on Friday.
21) White Sox (27-34) (21)
In one of the wackiest games this season, the White Sox and Mariners were scoreless after 13 innings before Chicago took a 5-0 lead in the 14th only to allow Seattle to tie the game in the bottom of the inning. The White Sox did end up winning, 7-5 in 16 innings.
22) Twins (27-33) (19)
Went 2-4 on a six-game road trip. Now return to Minnesota for nine in a row.
23) Angels (27-36) (22)
Josh Hamilton doesn’t have an RBI in his past 12 games and is batting .212 on the season. No one expected those numbers two months into the season.
24) Marlins (18-44) (25)
The Marlins are 8-3 against the Mets this season, as in almost half their wins have come against the Amazin’s.
25) Dodgers (27-35) (29)
Puig had four home runs last week — or two more than Matt Kemp has all season.
26) Cubs (25-35) (26)
The Cubs salvaged the weekend with a 4-1 win over the Pirates on Sunday.
27) Mets (23-35) (28)
Shaun Marcum (eight innings, five hits, one run, seven strikeouts) pitched better in relief than Matt Harvey (seven innings, six hits, one run, six strikeouts) did to start Saturday’s 20-inning game against the Marlins, but still wound up the hard-luck loser to make him 0-7 on the season.
28) Blue Jays (27-35) (24)
Played their second 17-plus inning game in just over a week on Saturday, this time earning a 4-3 18-inning win over the Rangers. They lost 4-3 to the Padres in 17 on May 31.
29) Brewers (25-37) (30)
Won three in a row for the first time since April 21-23, but will need a lot more than that to climb back into the playoff race.
30) Astros (22-42) (27)
Scored 11 runs in Wednesday’s win over the Orioles, but managed seven runs in the other six games last week.