Chris Taylor provided a thunderous jolt in his return to the Los Angeles Dodgers, but squandered opportunities with the bases loaded and shaky bullpen pitching led to the San Diego Padres mounting a late rally and stole a win in extra innings.
While Taylor appeared off the bench and played three innings in the Dodgers’ win on Saturday, his start in the series finale was a first since being scratched because of lower back stiffness.
The back trouble surfaced during an at-bat in Tuesday’s game against the Seattle Mariners. Taylor continued to play but re-evaluated matters after taking batting practice on Thursday. “I wasn’t sure if I wanted to try to fight through it the first game of this series,” he said.
“I felt like I could’ve gone out there, but at this point in the season I think the smart decision was not to risk making something small worse. Took a couple games off and got it where I needed to be.”
Taylor didn’t show any residual effects of the minor injury, slugging a three-run home run to the opposite field in the sixth inning and later racing around the bases for a triple. “It feels good. I think it’s something I’m just going to have to kind of manage,” Taylor said.
“Maybe not take quite as many swings before the game and just something I’ll monitor as I’m going. It felt really good today. … Once I get in the game, the adrenaline just kind of takes over and I don’t think about it.
“I don’t really have that in my game, to be able to take anything off. I’m going to play 100% all the time. I’m not very good with taking anything off on my swing. Once I step in between the lines, I’m playing the same.”
Dodgers LOB
The Dodgers loaded the bases in the second, third and fifth innings, yet only scored two runs. Overall they went 3-for-17 with runners in scoring position and left 18 on base.
“For us, I felt like a lot of missed opportunities,” Taylor said. “We had some good moments but weren’t able to shut the door on them when we needed to. In that game there were so many instances or plays you can look at, so it’s hard to pick one.
“We know we didn’t play our best baseball. That’s one we’ve got to take care of business and win.”
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