Dodgers’ Dave Roberts On Yasiel Puig’s Game-Ending Play

The Dodgers’ struggles continued on Saturday, losing 2-1 to the Giants in the second game of the series.

It was an uphill battle from the beginning, with Hyun-Jin Ryu leaving the game in the 3rd inning after being hit by a line drive off the bat of Joe Panik. Luckily, x-rays were negative and it’s looking like he’s going to be okay.

Left forearm contusion for Hyun Jin Ryu. X-rays are negative.

— AlaNNa Rizzo (@alannarizzo) September 24, 2017

The pitching was solid the whole night, but the offense just couldn’t get it going. Los Angeles collected six hits and just one run that came from an Austin Barnes home run in the 8th inning. Then in the 9th inning, Yasiel Puig got on base after hitting into a force out. He tried stealing second but was easily thrown out, especially since he didn’t slide.

Dave Roberts was not very happy about it after the game.

Roberts said Puig went on his own & said, "you cannot get thrown out there". Most upset I've seen Roberts in a while.

— AlaNNa Rizzo (@alannarizzo) September 24, 2017

Puig immediately grabbed his ankle after being thrown out and it turns out that it wasn’t just a case of bad base-running that got him out.

Yasiel Puig said he twisted his ankle the moment he was going to slide. "It bothers me a little, but I'm okay."

— Eric Stephen (@ericstephen) September 24, 2017

The play was definitely frustrating, regardless of the reason Puig didn’t slide. It is good to hear that it doesn’t look like anything serious is wrong with his ankle, but Puig is not in Sunday’s lineup so we will update you as soon as there is more news on his condition.

The Dodgers have just six games to play after Sunday’s series finale against the Giants. It seems like the testing is mostly done and securing home-field advantage is the number one priority, so it makes sense why Roberts was so upset. With Saturday’s loss, the Dodgers are just one game ahead of the Cleveland Indians for the best record in baseball.

It’s coming down to the wire, and Roberts and the rest of the team can’t afford to lose anymore with the Indians being so hot as of late. Again, the mistake by Puig looks like it was out of his control and a tweaked ankle was the real cause, but he shouldn’t have been stealing in the first place. Hopefully he can learn from this and be better for it come October.