The Los Angeles Dodgers were swept by the Pittsburgh Pirates at Dodger Stadium for the first time since September 2000 to finish off a series in which they ran into several outs on the bases.
Some of those instances were a result of the Pirates making impressive defensive plays, but others were more curious. Further putting a spotlight on the Dodgers’ baserunning was last weekend’s series in which the Arizona Diamondbacks had three pickoffs over four games.
On Wednesday, the Dodgers’ comeback bid was hurt by Kevin Pillar being thrown out on his attempt to advance in the third inning, and Chris Taylor trying to go first to third in the sixth. And Gavin Lux attempting to score on Trea Turner’s fly ball to center field resulted in a double play that ended the seventh inning.
While the outs were costly and uncharacteristic for a usually-disciplined Dodgers team, manager Dave Roberts didn’t take particular issue.
“Chris is very good base runner and I thought Ke’Bryan (Hayes) made a great pick and a great tag, and it had to be a perfect play for him to be out,” Roberts said. “And so it’s just like, even [Tuesday] night the right fielder makes this great play in right center-field going to his right and throw Freddie (Freeman) out.
“And it’s just they made plays when they needed to. So I like our aggressiveness. It just didn’t work out.”
Taylor getting thrown out on his attempt to get to third base loomed particularly large as Austin Barnes followed the sequence with a single that would’ve tied the game. Pittsburgh ultimately began to pull away and led 8-2 before Mookie Betts’ two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Dodgers baserunning mistakes in a vacuum
Roberts added he believes the Dodgers’ blunders on the bases of late is more of just unfortunate timing.
“We are very good at limiting mistakes, outs on the bases, giving up outs. And in this small sample right now we’ve obviously given away a lot of outs. So I expect that to kind of balance out,” he said.
“I do think that we run the bases aggressively and smart, and pick times to be aggressive. Some of those in Arizona were the replay and some kind of flukish things. But the Freddie play and then the C.T. play, nine times out of 10, those plays I bet they’d be safe.
“So I don’t want to kind of take away from the aggressiveness.”
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