The Los Angeles Dodgers broke out the bats en route to their Major League-leading 50th win of the season, tallying 13 hits and nine runs in Wednesday’s drubbing of the rival San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium.
The club received contributions from a plethora of players across the lineup, but it was Chris Taylor who stood out the most with arguably his finest performance of the season.
The 28-year-old, who is receiving more playing time as of late with Corey Seager sidelined, immediately provided run support for the Dodgers pitching staff by hitting a three-home run in the bottom of the first inning against Giants southpaw Drew Pomeranz.
Taylor overall had three hits in four at-bats, later adding a ground-rule double and solo home run for good measure. He accumulated a season-best 10 total bases in the process and led the Dodgers with four RBI on the night in his first career multi-home run effort.
After the game, Taylor explained he feels in a good place offensively and attributed his recent success to keeping consistent with his approach, per Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:
“I’ve felt pretty good for a little bit,” said Taylor. “Mechanically, I feel like I’ve been very consistent, doing the same things for the past couple months now, which is a change of pace from last year when I felt like every week I was doing something different.”
As Taylor points out, he has been seeing the ball considerably better over recent weeks. Wednesday’s matchup against the Giants marked his second consecutive game with at least two hits. In the series thus far, Taylor is 5-for-12 with three extra-base hits and five RBI.
Moreover, Taylor has recorded at least one RBI in three straight games. Dating back to June 10 (nine games), he has collected 10 hits in 31 at-bats — good for a solid .323 batting average.
Expanding his success to a larger sample size, Taylor has particularly thrived since the start of May. In 40 games during the span, he has compiled a .270/.328/.524 slash line with 10 doubles, two triples, six home runs and 20 RBI over 139 plate appearances.
In 71 total games this season, Taylor is hitting .235/.304/.429 with 13 doubles, two triples, seven home runs, 29 RBI, four stolen bases and 19 walks across 219 trips to the plate. His ability to be a consistent contributor is all the more imperative as Seager recovers from a hamstring strain.
