After Gavin Lux lifted a towering home run off St. Louis Cardinals starter Jack Flaherty, Chris Taylor followed with a line drive into the bullpen to give the Los Angeles Dodgers back-to-back home runs for a third time this season.
While it doubled their lead at the time, Taylor’s most important at-bat of the night came in the sixth inning. With the bases loaded and the game tied, Taylor battled Cardinals reliever Génesis Cabrera for 14 pitches.
“He has a good fastball, so I was trying to just be as short as possible. Kind of grind him out and trying to put the ball in play,” Taylor explained after the win.
“He was riding that fastball up, and I fouled some of them back. I was able to fight off those offspeed pitches and finally got a good swing on one late.”
Cabrera fell behind 2-0, then got Taylor to offer at six straight pitches; one of which was a swing and miss. Cabrera’s ninth pitch to Taylor was for ball, forcing the count full and putting the Cardinals in danger of walking in a second runner.
Taylor stayed alive as he saw a mix of fastballs, a curveball and changeup, and on the 14th pitch of the at-bat drove a bases-clearing double into right-center field. “I was just trying to be on the heater and adjust to the offspeed,” Taylor said.
“He’s got a really good fastball, so I didn’t want to be in between. Just trust my eyes there. … I knew I had been up there a while. I didn’t realize it was 14 pitches. I knew it was a lot, but I had lost count. I wasn’t exactly counting how many pitches it was, but I knew it was a lot.”
Taylor’s at-bat was reminiscent of Alex Cora hitting a home run on the 18th pitch he saw. He had an awareness of the lengthy battle but not the specifics until after the fact.
“I knew I had been up there a while. I didn’t realize it was 14 pitches,” Taylor said. “I knew it was a lot, but I had lost count. I wasn’t exactly counting how many pitches it was, but I knew it was a lot.”
Roberts, Bauer impressed by Taylor
Taylor’s three-run double helped get Trevor Bauer off the hook despite surrendering three home runs.
“That was crazy. That was an epic at-bat. Against a guy with really good stuff, who is having a really good year, in a big spot,” Bauer said of Taylor. “Put together a crazy at-bat. That was a big moment for us coming off of being down in that inning.
“To come back and put four on the board, that was obviously the at-bat that capped it off. It was just a big moment for the team and a great at-bat.”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who was teammates with Cora at the time of his historic at-bat, was similarly impressed by Taylor. “Obviously that 14-pitch at-bat from C.T. was the difference in the game as far as taking a lead,” Roberts said.
“At that point it could’ve gone either way. That was just a huge at-bat. I can’t say enough about it. … He just wasn’t going to be denied. A guy was up there throwing 97-98 mph, a breaking ball, changeup.
“A guy that typically doesn’t have command, it’s sometimes harder, because you don’t want to be surprised by a ball in the zone. C.T. was just relentless in that at-bat. Probably the best one we’ve had this year.”
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