Yasiel Puig Launches Pinch-Hit, Go-Ahead Home Run for Dodgers After Being Benched (Video)

Even while occupying a spot deep in Don Mattingly‘s doghouse, Yasiel Puig found a way to change the Dodgers fortunes with one swing on Tuesday.

Puig was benched for Tuesday’s game in Miami due to poor production and fined by the team for arriving late to the ballpark. Mattingly turned to Puig as a pinch hitter with the score tied in the eighth inning, and the electrifying rookie promptly made Dodgers fans forget his recent transgressions.

Puig crushed the first pitch he saw over the center field fence, giving L.A. a one-run lead in a game they would go to win 6-4. The solo homer snapped a brutal skid for the Cuban phenom, who had reached base just three times in his last 23 plate appearances entering Tuesday night.

Check out the slump-busting bomb in the video below.