Anyone who watched the Dodgers pound the San Francisco Giants 13-5 on Tuesday night witnessed one of the most impressive offensive power displays by the Dodgers in recent history and certainly since their 14-3 opening day shellacking of the lowly San Diego Padres. In fact, every spot in Tuesday night’s lineup scored at least one run and only three were without a hit. And even though it was Dodgers rookie Cody Bellinger‘s bases-clearing triple in the bottom of the second inning that helped turn an early 4-0 deficit into a 6-4 Dodgers lead by the end of that frame, there was another Dodger player who had an even more impressive and very welcomed night – Dodgers right fielder Yasiel Puig, who was 3-for-5 on the night with four runs batted in.

As every Dodger fan on the planet knows, the 26-year-old Cienfuegos, Cuba native – who was dubbed “The Wild Horse” by Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully – has had an on-again, off-again career since making his major league debut with the Dodgers on June 3, 2013, with his best season in the majors thus far being his call-up year. During that season Puig posted a remarkable slash-line of .319 / .391 / .534 for an outstanding OPS of .925 and a career-high 19 home runs that landed him second in the 2013 NL Rookie of the Year voting behind only the late Jose Fernandez.

Puig’s four RBI’s on Tuesday night were the most since August 11, 2015, when he drove in five.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Those who have followed Puig’s five-year MLB career closely are well aware that he has struggled mightily at times, especially last season where, at one point, he was actually demoted to Triple-A Oklahoma City – a move that many credit with turning his brief but oft-controversial career around. And while there is no disputing that this was indeed a turning point for the 6′-2″ / 240-pound right fielder with arguably the strongest arm in the game today, there is one man – out of many who have tried – who deserves full credit for the Yasiel Puig that we are seeing today – Dodgers current hitting coach Turner Ward, a two-time World Series champion (1992-1993) while playing for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Like many current and former major league hitting coaches, Ward was not a superstar during his playing days. In fact, his 12-year MLB career slash-line was only .251 / .332 / .388 for an OPS of .721; decent but well short of Hall of Fame worthiness. He did, however, “know how to hit,” as players and baseball analysts often say. But more importantly, he knew how to teach others to hit, which landed him jobs as manager for the State College Spikes of the New York–Penn League in 2007 and the Mobile BayBears – the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Double-A affiliate in the Southern League – in 2011. Ward was later promoted as the Dbacks assistant hitting coach in 2013 until he was lured away by the Dodgers in 2016 to be their primary hitting coach. Since then, he has been praised by several Dodger players as the guy who taught them how to hit, players such as Joc Pederson, Justin Turner, Andrew Toles and Kiké Hernandez, to name only a few. But hands down, the guy who Turner Ward has helped the most is Yasiel Puig.

It’s not that Puig didn’t know how to hit, heaven knows that this is a God-given talent. It’s that Ward taught him how to be a better hitter and to have better quality at-bats – something that Puig is unquestionably doing in the early goings of the 2017 season. In fact, on several occasions during Tuesday night’s game, Puig was caught on camera looking over into the Dodgers dugout where Ward made several hand gestures to remind Puig to do something during his at-bats and, whatever it was, it worked.

Dodgers hitting coach Turner Ward has been able to do something that no other hitting coach before him has been able to do – reach Yasiel Puig. (Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)

As noted, Puig was 3-for-5 on the night with four RBIs – his most since tying his career high of five RBIs on August 11, 2015. And even though he did strike out once on Tuesday night, he did not chase breaking balls low and away which, until this season, has been his Achilles heel.

Whatever it is that Turner Ward is doing to help Puig move his numbers north instead of south after a rough start to the new season, Dodger fans everywhere are hoping and praying that it continues.

Thank you Turner Ward, just thank you.