Chris Taylor has emerged as a valuable All-Star with the Los Angeles Dodgers since joining the team during the 2016 season, but the current road trip has seen him uncharacteristically run into outs on the bases.
The first instance came in a loss to the San Diego Padres last weekend, when Taylor attempted to tag up and take third base on a fly ball to left field. Jurickson Profar made the catch and strong throw to erase the Dodgers’ free baserunner to start extra innings.
The Padres then went on to cash in their automatic runner in the bottom of the 10th for a 3-2 win.
On Tuesday, Taylor was at second base when Mookie Betts hit a line drive into left field. Taylor immediately began to break for third base and rounded toward home as David Peralta made a routine catch for the start of a costly inning-ending double play in the seventh.
Following the loss, Taylor accepted responsibility for not accurately dissecting the flight of the ball, via Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group
“It was just a bad read,” Taylor said. “For some reason, I thought he hit it off the end of the bat and thought it was going to be down. Tried to get a good jump and score. But it stayed up and he caught it. Can’t happen.”
Whereas Roberts defended Taylor’s attempt to tag up against the Padres and credited Profar for making a perfect throw, he was more critical of Tuesday’s mistake. Like Taylor, Roberts deemed it a ‘bad read’ on the bases.
Taylor’s baserunning mistake put a damper on what otherwise was an encouraging night as he went 2-for-4 to led the team in hits. It was Taylor’s first multi-hit effort since April 14, which was a fourth time time in five games he had two hits.
Dodgers still being cautious with Taylor
Although Taylor has said there aren’t any lingering effects from offseason surgery to remove bone chips from his right elbow, the Dodgers have only played him in the outfield.
“I think for me, the driver is C.T. coming back from surgery. So to not put him in a situation where he’s got to play with arm angles,” Roberts recently explained of Taylor not yet playing the infield.
“From the outfield, then to kind of shorten the stroke and throw from different angles. So to make sure he gets a 100% bill of health, and then we’ll kind of move him around more.”
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