TELANDER: Turner, Puig causing headaches for Maddon’s Cubs

LOS ANGELES — Delirious teammates dumped a bucket of orange Gatorade over the head of Justin Turner, the star of Game 2, but it hardly made a change in the third baseman’s appearance.

His flaming orange-red hair and Viking beard either absorbed the liquid or shed it like water off a red roof.

Turner, who wore ‘‘RedTurn2’’ on the back of his jersey during Players Weekend in August (when players could ‘‘express themselves in a unique manner,’’ per the MLB Players Association), had mashed a three-run home run with two outs in the ninth inning to win the game 4-1. He helped the Dodgers take a 2-0 series lead over the Cubs, which means the Cubs have to win four of the possible five games left.

That’s what you call a daunting task.

And it has been the Dodgers’ great pitching, the Cubs’ lousy hitting and this guy named Turner that have made the road so tough. Oh, and the muscleman loose cannon named Yasiel Puig. He’s the Dodgers right fielder who does things such as lick his bat as he walks to the plate, dance backward (or forward) like a puppet when a pitch is inside or too far outside and celebrate his apparent home runs even when he’s shocked to see the ball hasn’t flown over the wall.

It was Puig’s crushing bat that delivered two key RBI in the Dodgers’ Game 1 win. And it was the Cubs’ fear of him that had them walking him three times in Game  2, the final time being a virtual intentional walk from Brian Duensing — on four pitches — even though the score was tied at 1 and Puig was the first batter of the ninth inning. Nobody wants to put the winning run on base with no outs, right?

Puig scored on Turner’s homer, as did Chris Taylor. But you just had the feeling beforehand that the two big hitters were going to beat the Cubs somehow.

Turner had an RBI single in the fifth, giving him all of the Dodgers’ RBI for the night. He also was walked once. Imagine, he and Puig gained first base four times without even putting the ball in play.

‘‘What’s not to enjoy about it?’’ Turner said of the moment. ‘‘We have an opportunity to bring a championship back to L.A. And it’s been a long time.’’

Twenty-nine years, to be exact. Not long, in Cubs time, before last year’s crown. But fairly long for a proud organization that bleeds royal blue.

Puig is a character the likes of which the Dodgers have not often seen on their roster. A free spirit who calls himself ‘‘Wild Horse,’’ Puig had to ratchet his act down several ticks on the crazy dial or he might have found himself out of baseball.

A Cuban defector, Puig was caught going 97 mph in a 50 mph zone in Tennessee and another time going 110 mph in a 70 mph zone in Florida. He made an obscene gesture to an Indians fan in Cleveland after a home run this season and had to make a donation to a charity as penance.

But he’s more on cruise control now, and as Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after the game, ‘‘He’s as focused as I’ve ever seen him.’’

As for Turner, he’s a guy in his fourth organization, but he has absolutely blossomed in his four years with the Dodgers. In the last two seasons, he has collected 300 hits. And he has made the craft of fouling off low-and-away pitches into such a refined art that he can drive a pitcher mad with frustration and crank up the pitch count on anybody.

The Cubs won’t ever beat the Dodgers if they can’t figure out how to hit. But even if they do, guys such as Puig and Turner will be there to bedevil them. Uh-oh.

Follow me on Twitter @ricktelander.

Email: rtelander@suntimes.com