Puig pushing Dodgers' offense in early going
SAN DIEGO -- Yasiel Puig, unusually quiet in the clubhouse so far, is making his noise at the plate.
He tripled for the second consecutive game Tuesday night, this one driving in two runs before he scored the third in the Dodgers' 3-0 win over the Padres, their eighth consecutive win over San Diego.
"Yasiel is having good at-bats," manager Dave Roberts said. "That was a big hit. For the most part, he's swinging at strikes and taking balls. When he gets on base and conducts those at-bats in the middle of the order, good things are going to happen."
After scoring 15 runs in support of Clayton Kershaw on Opening Day, the Dodgers were quieted Tuesday night except for the fourth inning, which started with one of Corey Seager's three hits, a leadoff single off James Shields.
Former Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp made a diving catch of Justin Turner's drive to right-center, but Adrian Gonzalez hit a knuckleball to deep center that spun center fielder Jon Jay in several directions before landing for a double.
Puig then cleared Jay's head with his triple, scoring Seager and Gonzalez, and Carl Crawford singled home Puig. The Dodgers didn't get another runner past second the rest of the game.
"We just capitalized on a couple off-speed pitches he left up," said Seager. "That's how we went after him."