MINNEAPOLIS -- From the moment Yasiel Puig broke into the big leagues, its been go, go, go for the 23-year-old Cuban outfielder.www.salenfljerseyswholesale.com . Now that Los Angeles Dodgers manager Don Mattingly is seeing his electrifying, and sometimes maddening, player start to slow things down on the diamond, theres no telling how far his talents can take him. Puig tied a career high with four hits and drove in two runs and Dan Haren struck out seven in 6 2-3 innings to help the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 9-4 victory over the Minnesota Twins in Game 1 of a day-night doubleheader on Thursday. "His whole game seems to be calming down, base-running, defence," Mattingly said. "At the plate were seeing him be more patient. The sky is the limit for Yasiel Puig. "If he continues down this path, then he changes everything with how you pitch him, what you can do to him, because hes going to force you to throw the ball over the plate." Haren (4-0) gave up four runs -- three earned -- and six hits with three walks and Juan Uribe also tied a career-high with four hits and two RBIs for the Dodgers. Chris Perez pitched 1 2-3 innings for his first save. Mike Pelfrey (0-3) gave up five runs and seven hits and walked three in four innings for the Twins. Brian Dozier had two hits and two RBIs for Minnesota. The Dodgers looked uncomfortable in the 40-degree weather in the first inning, when throwing errors by Carl Crawford in left field and catcher Miguel Olivo on the same play allowed Trevor Plouffe to score from first base on a bloop single by Jason Kubel to give the Twins a 2-0 lead. But Pelfrey, who has not won a game at Target Field since April 16, 2013, gave the lead right back when his walk to Olivo loaded the bases with no outs in the second inning. Puigs two-run double made it 3-2 and the Dodgers scored two more on a double from Matt Kemp and a single from Uribe in the third to take control. "Weve got to do something about it, we have to fix it," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said of Pelfrey. "Were trying to get him on the right path." Puig also had singles in the first, fourth and sixth innings and walked in the eighth, the third time hes had four hits in a game. He is batting .400 (16 for 40) with three doubles and 12 RBIs in his past 10 games to raise his average to .308 for the season and said hes worked with hitting coach Mark McGwire on his approach at the plate. "Hes helped me not get too anxious at the plate," Puig said through an interpreter. "And its helped me just connect with pitches that would normally give me trouble." The Twins seemed poised for a big inning in the fifth when Doziers single drove in two runs and a walk to Joe Mauer gave them runners on first and second with nobody out. Mattingly then challenged a close play at second base, when Hanley Ramirez stabbed a line drive from Plouffe and, in one motion, flipped the ball from his glove to second baseman Dee Gordon to try and double up Dozier. Umpires ruled Dozier safe on the play, but after a two-minute replay, officials overturned the call and ruled Dozier out. Jason Kubel grounded out in the next at-bat to end the inning and Haren escaped with a 5-4 lead. "That fifth inning was close to falling apart," Haren said. "Id be lying if I told you I didnt catch a break there, Hanley making a good play and getting the double play. ... Besides that I felt really good. I had a good rhythm the whole game." Gardenhire had a challenge of his own in the eighth inning when Kubel was called out on a play at second base. Gordon dropped the throw from Ramirez on the play, and replay officials quickly overturned the play to call Kubel safe. NOTES: Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw, on the disabled list since after his first start of the season with strained shoulder, threw 86 pitches and allowed two runs in five innings in a start for Double-A Chattanooga on Wednesday night and appears in line to rejoin the rotation early next week. ... Red Patterson will make his MLB debut in the nightcap for the Dodgers against Twins LHP Kris Johnson. Both were called up to start the game under a provision that allows rosters to expand to 26 for a doubleheader.http://www.salenfljerseyswholesale.com/ . Canada dropped a 24-21 decision to Zimbabwe before bouncing back with a 10-7 win over Spain. All three sides finished with seven points apiece in Pool E to move on to the final eight while the Philippines was last with only three points.salenfljerseyswholesale.com . Barcelona says Pique tore a muscle in his right leg. The Spain international will miss Spanish league games against Almeria and Valladolid, but should be back for the Champions league match against Manchester City on March 12.DENVER -- As the winning streak climbs, so does the stress level for San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich. At least, that was Tim Duncans assessment after the Spurs ran their streak to 16 straight by beating the Denver Nuggets 133-102 on Friday night. This is their longest regular-season win streak since reeling off 17 in a row from Feb. 29 to March 31, 1996. And Popovich seems to be growing more antsy with every victory. "Oh, very. Very, very, very. Very much," Duncan said. "Hes a teacher and wants to teach. He wants the good and the bad. Even through this streak, hes been on us a tremendous amount, making sure we dont rest on just the wins, but were learning from game to game." Popovich found a teaching moment in the third quarter with the game well in hand. His team relaxed on one possession and allowed an easy transition basket by Randy Foye. Popovich quickly called timeout and voiced his displeasure to his team. "Even as much as were up, he was still on us the entire game," Duncan said. Hard to find too much fault with the Spurs effort in this one. Marco Belinelli scored 27 points, Duncan had 20 and the Spurs scored a season high in points. San Antonio also maintained a three-game lead for the top seed in the Western Conference. Its a quick turnaround for the Spurs, who host New Orleans on Saturday. "This (winning streak) is great challenge," Duncan said. "Its a big challenge. People can get lackadaisical and look past certain games. Weve done a good job of not doing that." Foye scored 20 for a banged-up Nuggets squad that lost for the fourth time in five games. Wilson Chandler was out with a strained groin, while Timofey Mozgov and Kenneth Faried were hampered by an illness. Faried still finished with 18 points and 13 rebounds. "Theyre devastated, injury-wise," Popovich said. "Its not a fair deal." Still, a 31-point loss was hard for Nuggets coach Brian Shaw to absorb, even if he is missing quite a few starters to season-ending injuries. "That was an embarrassing loss," Shaw said. "Just from every standpoint of the game -- defensively, body langguage, energy, just embarrassing, and it starts with me, just doing whatever I need to do to get our guys prepared and to come out and give the kind of energy and effort we need, especially playing the top team in the league.dddddddddddd" Belinelli stepped into the starting lineup with Danny Green hobbled by an inflamed right foot and quickly found his rhythm. Belinelli scored 14 in the first quarter and finished 10 of 15 from the field. "We really love to move the ball together, thats why were winning together right now," Belinelli said. Popovich insisted before the game that hes not going to overextend his players to secure the No. 1 seed in the West. His goal is to keep them "as healthy and energetic as possible at this time of year." The veteran coach didnt have to worry about taxing his team too much in this one, building a 25-point lead midway through the third quarter and resting most of his starters for a majority of the fourth. All this winning so close to the playoffs is making Popovich a little anxious because, "maybe this comes too easy," he said. "Losing is not a bad thing at this point of the year." Trailing 20-14 in the first, the Spurs closed out the quarter on a 17-3 run. The Nuggets couldnt rally back into the game, like they did Wednesday in San Antonio when they trailed the Spurs by 24 only to make it close down the stretch, before falling 108-103. "We just let them do basically what they wanted to do," Foye said. "We had more fight on their court last game than we did on our court tonight. Thats unacceptable. We didnt bring it tonight and against a team like that if you dont bring it, its going to be a long night for you." NOTES: San Antonio kept Matt Bonner (strained calf) at home because, "he wasnt going to play anyway," Popovich said. ... The Spurs finished with 37 assists, including seven by C Tiago Splitter. ... Nuggets F Jan Vesely (bruised rib cage) was back on the court after missing two games. He finished with five points. ... Reserve G Evan Fournier had 15 points for the Nuggets. ... Denver trailed by as many as 35 points. cheap jerseys ' ' '
