Albert Pujols taught Yasiel Puig a valuable lesson during Monday night’s game between the Los Angeles Angels and Los Angeles Dodgers. When Pujols was on first with LA leading 5-0 in the eighth inning, he somehow managed to tag up and take second base on a fly out to center field.
Pujols, who doesn’t run well at all, completely caught Puig off guard. Puig nonchalantly fielded the fly ball before realizing what Pujols was up to. Albert easily beat the youngster’s throw and mocked him for it after the inning ended.
Puig had fun with several of the Angels players over the course of the night. He made a catch on a line drive to center field two minutes earlier and tried to throw behind Erick Aybar to double him off at first, but Aybar got back safely. The two exchanged finger wags.
Dodgers manager Don Mattingly told reporters after the game that he hopes Pujols taught Puig something.
“I hope he learns a lesson from it,” he said, per MLB.com’s Alden Gonzalez. “Albert knows how to play the game. Albert takes a few hard steps and if Yasiel comes up throwing, he stops. He drops his head and Albert knows there’s no play. We talked about them being an aggressive team. If you don’t pay attention, they will embarrass you, and he embarrassed him there.”
Puig has shown us on several occasions that he has a tremendous arm, which is what made Pujols’ successful tag up so hilarious. Now we see why Mattingly is hesitant to put Puig in center.
H/T Big League Stew
