Anyone who has been watching the Dodgers regularly since Yasiel Puig made his MLB debut on June 3 knew that this day would come. In fact, there hasn’t been a single game in which Puig hasn’t scared the tar out of Dodger fans at least once during a game and usually two or even three times.

Yasiel Puig made yet another great diving catch in Saturday’s 3-0 win over the Cubs, but will this one land him on the DL? (Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)

When he isn’t crashing into walls, Puig is making impossible diving catches that constantly has Dodger fans holding their collective breath until they are convinced that Puig didn’t hurt himself, and thus far he has come away (relatively) unscathed each time. Oh sure, there was that crashing into the wall thing at Coors Field where Puig bruised his right leg and hip that eventually led to him missing a grand total of one game, but for the most part, he has been virtually indestructible.

…until yesterday.

In the bottom of the 7th inning, Puig made yet another diving catch, this one off the bat of Cubs shortstop Starlin Castro in which Puig appeared to roll over and injure his left wrist – a common injury among outfielders and one that brought about the end of former Dodger Jayson Werth’s brief stint with the Dodgers before eventually moving on to the Phillies and Nationals. In Puig’s case he made the catch (of course) and shook off the injury and even tried to wave off assistant trainer Nancy Patterson (she went out to check on him anyway). Although Puig finished the inning, he was replaced by utility infielder/outfielder Skip Schumaker for the remainder of the game and was seen in the Dodger dugout sporting a wrapped left hand and wrist.

Shortly after the game L.A. Times beat reporter Dylan Hernandez tweeted that Puig had suffered a ‘wrist contusion.’ This was followed by another tweet saying that it was a ‘thumb contusion.’ A third tweet indicated that Puig had pointed to the area between his left thumb and index finger to show reporters where he had actually hurt himself . According to Puig, it was the exact same spot where he had suffered an identical injury while with the Double-A Chattanooga Lookouts earlier this season, for which he missed 10 games; however, Puig insisted that this one isn’t as bad as that one was.

After making the catch, Puig rolled over his left wrist awkwardly. Although Puig insists he’s fine, look for him to sit out a few games as a result of the injury.
Video capture courtesy of Fox Sports).

In his post-game interview on Saturday afternoon Dodger manager Don Mattingly told reporters: “We’ll see where he’s at tomorrow.” This was immediately followed by what nobody wanted to hear: “He’s day to day.” Thus far this season Mattingly has said this three previous times and in each case, the player he was speaking of landed on the DL.

Puig had much less to say about Saturday’s injury.

“I’m fine.”

Since his June 3 call-up Puig has appeared in 53 games and missed only one, but it’s pretty safe to say that he will miss at least Sunday’s series finale against the Cubs at Wrigley Field and perhaps even a few of the games against the suddenly struggling St. Louis Cardinals – that is if Mattingly didn’t jinx him onto the 15-day DL.

Stay tuned…

UPDATE:

As anticipated, Puig is not in the starting line-up for Sunday’s game.