The Los Angeles Dodgers opened up the 2018 season against the San Francisco Giants on Thursday, and for the first time since Opening Day 2010, they lost their first game of the year. Being shutout is obviously not what the Dodgers hoped for, but they were only able to manage six hits with two of them coming from their starting pitcher, Clayton Kershaw.
They did have some opportunities to score, though, particularly late in the game when facing Giants relievers, but they went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position.
One of those at-bats came in the bottom of the seventh inning, when Chris Taylor stepped up to the plate with the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position. Cory Gearrin was searching for a final out to escape the jam.
Taylor did a nice job of working the count full but ultimately was not able to come through as he took a slider right down the middle of the plate for strike three.
Taylor flipped in his bat and tossed his helmet in disgust of the sequence. After the loss, Taylor lamented the at-bat, via Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group:
“It was right down the middle. I was angry with myself,” Taylor said of his reaction. “I was thinking too much, I think. Taking a two-strike slider down the middle is inexcusable.”
Taylor went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts in the game, but he was not the only one that struggled. The the top five batters in the Dodgers lineup that were so good for them in 2017 combined to go 0-for-17 with three walks.
Taylor and the Dodgers have an opportunity to right the ship Friday night against Johnny Cueto and the Giants in the second of the four-game Opening Series.
