After being the launching location for a rally to make illegal immigrants citizens on Wednesday morning, Dodger Stadium was once again the stage for the best duo in baseball. The Dodgers spotted the Mets four runs, but when you have two .360 hitters in your line-up in Hanley Ramirez and the dazzling Yasiel Puig, that is no problem, as the Dodgers won for the 40th time in 48 games.
At 6 a.m. PDT, Dodger Stadium was used as a gathering point for a political rally, as reported by Breitbart News, but Wednesday night it was all baseball again.
Ramirez appeared back at 100% after only getting three at bats the previous 10 days. He stroked a double and single in five at bats to finish the night hitting .360. Due to Ramirez injuries and Yasiel Puig’s late call-up, neither has enough at bats to qualify to be among batting leaders. If they did, they would be two of only four players with an OPS (slugging average plus on-base percentage) of at least 1.000. Despite playing in perhaps the toughest park for hitters in baseball, Ramirez is at 1.049 and Puig at 1.103. They join only Miguel Cabrera (1.138), Chris Davis (1.054).
But it was Puig’s legendary arm and speed that won Wednesday.
The Dodgers would have lost in nine innings except for Puig’s incredible throw from right field in the second inning that nailed Marlon Byrd trying to go from first to third on Justin Turner’s single. The Mets still pushed one run across in the inning, but would have scored at least one more and won 5-4 in nine innings.
Instead, the Dodgers rallied from 4-0 down to tie the score in nine innings and put Puig back on the stage in the 12th inning. With one out, Puig hit a slow roller up the middle that barely made it through the infield. Suddenly, the Stadium erupted as they realized Puig had rounded first and was charging toward second. He easily beat the throw for what was almost an “infield double.”
He scored on Adrian Gonzalez’s double to give the Dodgers the 5-4 win and incredible 40-8 record in their last 48.