Nick Punto brings his jersey shredding to Los Angeles

I vaguely remember hearing about Nick Punto literally tearing off his teammates’ jerseys as some sort of walkoff win ceremony when he was in Boston earlier this year, but I chalked it up to spicy food before midnight or something. Now that I’m reading about it happening in L.A., however, I guess it’s a real thing:

Of the $262.5 million that Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford and Punto are owed after this season, Punto accounts for just $1.5 million of that total. His value to a team searching for chemistry, however, cannot be understated, especially during walk-off wins.

When Punto’s team wins in walk-off fashion, he reverts into his “Shredder” alter ego. He runs from the dugout like a sprinter out of the starter blocks, makes a beeline to whoever had the winning hit and proceeds to tear the player’s jersey off while the rest of his teammates jump into the fray.

He did it in St. Louis too:

“Last year, David Freese’s Game 6 jersey is in the Hall of Fame,” Punto said. “But it’s torn up in pieces.”

And now he’s done that the past couple of nights as the Dodgers have two walkoff wins in a row. AJ. Ellis was the most recent victim.

It’s like Punto sat around for two years trying to think of something dumber than hitting a teammate in the face with a pie or coming up with some silly hand gesture and then said “screw it, I’m just gonna assault my teammate.” The only place we have to go from here are “Victory Face Punches” and “Rally Cup Checks.”