Cuban phenom Yasiel Puig is continuing to draw attention as the newest rookie sensation in Major League Baseball.
Puig who hit .313 with eight home runs, 37 RBIs and 13 steals in 40 games for Double-AA Charranooga, made a splash on the MLB roster this week when he hit two home runs with five RBIs to push the Dodgers to a 9-7 win over the Kansas City Royals in only his second major league game.
Through his first four major league games, Puig has been showing off a little bit of everything, from a cannon-like arm to a blistering bat that has him batting .438 with a 1.063 slugging percentage, batting 7-for-16 with three home runs and nine RBIs in that stretch. Thanks to his hot start, Puig became the first Dodgers player with more than one homer in his first two career games and the first to have five RBIs in that span since 1947, when Spider Jorgensen had a similar start.
On Thursday, Puig did it again with a towering grand slam against the Atlanta Braves, helping the Dodgers pull off a 5-0 shutout win, Puig's blast to right field in the eighth inning off of Braves reliever Cory Gearrin accounting for four of those five runs.
His grand slam and sensational week earned him a Gatorade bath by his teammates after the game, as the Cuban sensation continues to take the game by storm.
"Pretty special," pitcher Clayton Kershaw said. "He's got some major power. I'd pay to watch."
"He does some amazing things, and the other guys love seeing that," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said, as reported by USA Today. "It's hard not to watch this guy. He looks like he plays with such joy. He's got that juice."
The rookie also has shown an unflappable poise through his red-hot start in the majors. Even after he went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts Wednesday in a 6-2 Dodgers loss to the San Diego Padres, prior to his monster grand slam on Thursday, Puig was unfazed by his performance.
"Tomorrow," he said through a Spanish-language interpreter, "is another day."
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