Max Scherzer wasn’t sharp and turned in the second-shortest postseason start of his career, but the Los Angeles Dodgers again picked him up with a 3-1 walk-off win against the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Wild Card Game.
The Cardinals immediately applied pressure as Tommy Edman opened the game with a flare single into right field and he then stole second base. Scherzer battled command issues from first pitch and walked Paul Goldschmidt to put two on with nobody out.
After a fly ball left runners at the corners, and the Cardinals took the lead on a wild pitch. Scherzer managed to hold St. Louis at just the one run, but he had to work through traffic and coupled with not being sharp, faced a high pitch count.
Much to his chagrin, Scherzer was removed with one out in the fifth inning. He attempted to shake Dodgers manager Dave Roberts’ hand on the mound rather than handing the baseball over, and continued to express frustration in the dugout.
That later was shared a bit by Adam Wainwright, who came out of the game with one out in the sixth inning. He too exited after allowing just one run — on a game-tying homer to Justin Turner in the fourth. That extended Turner’s franchise record of postseason home runs to 13.
Wainwright gave way to Luis Garcia, who walked Will Smith to put two on before getting through the sixth inning. Whereas Roberts came with a preemptive hook for Scherzer, Wainwright was removed after facing just two batters on the heels of being allowed to bat for himself with the go-ahead run on base in the top of the sixth inning.
The game remained deadlocked until Taylor delivered a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth. His walk-off home run marked the fourth in Dodgers postseason history.
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