If Yasiel Puig performs like he did Friday night, he may stay in center field permanently.
He started there for the first time this season and responded by going 4 for 5 with a double and three triples in an 8-1 win against the Giants at AT&T Park.
“It’s a really good stadium, actually, to hit triples, just hit them into right-center. You hit them, basically, where they can’t get them,” Puig told SportsNet LA afterward.
The only other Dodger player to get three triples in a game is Jimmy Sheckard in 1901.
Puig also scored two runs and had two RBIs.
The team hit five triples in the game, three coming in the fifth inning when they blew the game open by turning it into their own track meet.
Dee Gordon hit the first triple to drive in Zack Greinke and gave the Dodgers a 2-0 lead. Puig followed with a triple to drive in Gordon. After singles by Hanley Ramirez and Adrian Gonzalez, Matt Kemp hit a 3-0 fastball off the wall in the gaping hole in right-center field putting the Dodgers up, 6-0.
“It was fun to watch,” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said after the game.
The Dodgers knocked Giants starter Tim Lincecum (9-7) out in that fifth inning after he looked sharp through the first four, striking out six batters. But, in the end, he only went 4 ⅓ innings, allowing six runs on nine hits to take the loss.
His counterpart Greinke went seven innings, gave up four hits and struck out 10 to pick up his NL tying 12th win of the season.
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Puig was one of five Dodgers with multi-hit games.
Adrian Gonzalez went 2 for 4 with two RBIs to retake the NL lead with 67.
The Giants got on the board in the ninth against Paul Maholm.
Tyler Colvin drove in Joaquin Arias with a bases loaded single to make it 8-1, but Tony Abreu followed by flying out to Puig to end the game.
Despite the loss the Giants still hold a 1/2 game lead in the NL West.
