Puig Makes Dodger Debut, Phillies Brown Continues Home Run Streak

The last-place Los Angeles Dodgers (24-32) need some help and they may have found it with outfielder Yasiel Puig.

Yasiel Puig

On Monday, the player made his major league debut as the team’s lead off batter. He had two singles for the night along with a key throw from right field to first to finish a game-ending double play.

But his hits weren’t the only rookie contributions on Monday in the 2-1 win over the San Diego Padres (26-31), which snapped a two-game losing streak. Scott Van Slyke, who started in left field for the injured Carl Crawford, homered in the second.

In his 17 games to-date, Van Slyke has five home runs.

Adrian Gonzalez added a second homer for the night.

And because things happen in threes, rookie righty Stephen Fife took the mound for the Dodgers. In his 5 1/3 innings of pitching, he gave up one run with five hits and earned his first win in seven career big league starts. The team brought Fife up from Triple-A for an emergency start on Monday as lefty Chris Capuano pushed back his starting spot thanks to a strained triceps muscle.

For Puig, a Cuban defector, his entry to the big leagues was highly anticipated. Last June, he signed a $42 million, seven-year deal with the Dodgers. He showed promise in this year’s spring training, hitting .517 over 27 games with three homers and 11 RBIs. He then had a successful stint in Double-A Chattanooga ball before getting promoted.

Puig said of Monday’s game via MLB.com, “I’m very happy. I got two hits. We won the game. I made the last out of the game. Thank God.”

For the Padres, lefty Eric Stults (4-5) pitched seven innings but was stuck with a tough loss.

This freeway series will continue on Tuesday in Los Angeles. Taking the mound for the Dodgers is lefty Ted Lilly (0-2) vs. the Padres lefty Clayton Richard (1-5).

The Dodgers are hoping that Hanley Ramirez will make his return in this second game after a 28-game absence due to a hammy injury.

Look for another home team win (-131, 8 o/u).

Brown Smacks Eighth Straight Homer

It was another game, another home run for the Philadelphia Phillies (28-30) Domonic Brown.

Domonic Brown

The slugger hit his eighth home run in eight games on Monday. He sits as the National League’s home run leader with 17 and this came on the heels of Brown being named as May’s NL Player of the Month and Player of the Week earlier in the day.

He hit .303 (33-for-109) with 12 homers and 25 driven in (.688) last month, according to HardBallTalk.com. His play also launched him as the first Major League player in history to hit a minimum of 10 home runs in one calendar month without a walk.

In this new month,  Brown already has two home runs and has driven in six runs.

He said on Monday of his recent play via ESPN, “I’m not really big on numbers. I watch my at-bats every day, see which ones are good and try to keep improving.”

Brown’s homer contributed to a 7-2 win over the Miami Marlins (16-42).

Righty Kyle Kendrick was the winning pitcher. He gave up six hits, two runs, one walk and struck out five. In his last 15 batters, he retired all of them and in the end, his ERA improved to 3.12.

The pitcher can also hit and in the fifth inning, he tripled and scored, giving his team a 3-2 advantage.

Adding to the Phillies scoring were home runs by Eric Kratz and Delmon Young. The team has now scored seven runs in straight games. They still have two games remaining in this Marlins series.

On Tuesday, righty Ricky Nolasco (3-6) takes the mound for Miami while Phillies righty rookie Jonathan Pettibone (3-1) has pitching duty.

For the Phillies, they’re 40 to 1 to win this year’s World Series.