Yasiel Puig’s bat answers a wake-up call in Dodgers’ 8-4 victory over St. Louis

On Friday afternoon, a few hours before he contributed three hits in an 8-4 victory over St. Louis, Yasiel Puig staged a photo inside the Dodgers’ training room. Slump-ridden for weeks, Puig chose to cloak his discontent with humor. So he snapped a picture of Enrique Hernandez with a pair of bats strapped up to one of the team’s electronic stimulation devices.

“Trying to extract hits,” Puig wrote on Twitter. “Puig’s bat is next.”

The amateur witchcraft, combined with a more tempered approach at the plate, bore fruit Friday night. Puig completed his first three-hit game since April 6 as the Dodgers (19-17) capitalized on a slew of Cardinals mistakes in the series opener. The offense scored more than seven runs for just the fourth time this season.

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Puig notched an infield single in the second inning. He drove in a run with a single in the fourth. Two innings later, he muscled an opposite-field home run over the low fence in the right-field corner. As he jogged back toward the dugout, he overshot the entrance. Puig doubled back, where he found Manager Dave Roberts beaming.

“I was happy for him,” Roberts said. “He’s been working hard. The last few days, he’s been having good at-bats, and getting nothing to show for it. Today, he got rewarded.”

The Dodgers used four relievers to protect Ross Stripling’s first major league victory. Stripling outlasted Michael Wacha, his former teammate and roommate at Texas A&M, for five innings, allowing four runs. The Dodgers scored six runs while Wacha was on the mound, though only two of them were earned.

Stripling contributed to the barrage with the first hit of his career. He planned to rib Wacha at dinner after the game — a meal on Wacha’s dime.

“I’m definitely getting the lobster,” Stripling said. “Maybe a nice bottle of wine. Maybe a steak to go.”

As it has so often since his debut in 2013, the pregame discussion concerned Puig. He hit .184 during the first 10 games in May. He looked vulnerable to off-speed pitches, unable to stop himself from swinging at balls. Roberts insisted Puig had heard the club’s message about the value of patience.

“He’s not going up there trying to swing at balls out the strike zone,” Roberts said before the game. “That’s not his intent. I’m certain of that.”

Roberts reported confidence in Puig’s progress this week. Puig had only two hits during a four-game series against the Mets, but he did sting several balls that found gloves instead of grass. On Friday, he experienced the opposite phenomenon, when he was graced with good luck when an infield single ticked off Wacha’s glove in his first at-bat.

“That lets you exhale a little bit, and feel more confident,” Roberts said.

Puig contributed to the rally, which started when Cardinals shortstop Aledmys Diaz made the first of his three errors. Trayce Thompson dunked a two-run single. Stripling stepped into the box with two outs.

He had yet to record a hit in the majors. He never hit in high school, never hit in college and rarely wielded a bat in the minor leagues. Yet during the week, as he traded barbs with his friend Wacha, the majority of their verbiage centered on who could hit better against the other.

Wacha flung a 94-mph fastball, high and away. Stripling dumped the pitch into right for an opposite-field single. Howie Kendrick copied his approach in the next at-bat, driving in a run by shooting another outside fastball into right.

Joc Pederson blasted an RBI double in the third. An inning later, Puig batted with a pair of men on base. He missed a hanging curveball, then passed on a low fastball. Wacha tested him inside with another heater. Puig chopped a grounder. The ball bounced beneath the glove of third baseman Matt Carpenter. After weeks of bad swings and worse luck, Puig was starting to see a change.

“I was just asking God to hit [the ball] hard,” Puig said. “If they fielded it, then I don’t have an issue with that. I would rather go out like that than with a bad pitch.”

Almost all of Puig’s teammates had exited the stadium by the time he emerged from the training room after the game.

On his head, he wore a “Make Baseball Fun Again” cap. Across his torso he sported a T-shirt reading “PuigNotLate.” On his face he maintained a scowl.

“If I don’t help with my offense, I have to help with my defense,” Puig said. “That’s why the manager still trusts me. At the end of the day, if we keep wining games, then Puig’s numbers don’t matter.”

Follow Andy McCullough on Twitter @McCulloughTimes