Tanner Scott’s latest blowup highlights Dodgers’ glaring bullpen issues
SAN FRANCISCO — The game found its way to the man baseball supposedly hates in the 10th inning Friday night. There is little that has gone right for Tanner Scott this week, the most miserable one in what has been a rotten year in the first season as the Los Angeles Dodgers’ $72 million closer.
No man has blown more saves than the nine games that Scott has this season. The Dodgers’ offense had gone quiet enough that there wasn’t even a lead for Scott to hold when he entered with a man on third base and one out in the 10th inning, hoping to get the game into the 11th. The result was the same: a fastball that San Francisco Giants catcher Patrick Bailey punished, sending a grand slam into the seats to walk off a 5-1 Dodgers defeat and dump more salt into the gaping wound that has been Scott’s season.
Advertisement
“I’m tired of it happening,” Scott said.
The 31-year-old left-hander is sporting a 5.01 ERA and has allowed 11 home runs this season, as many as he’d allowed in the previous three seasons combined when he became one of the most feared relievers in the sport. Now, as one of the best compensated, he’s been handed a cruel twist.
“Baseball hates me right now,” Scott said exactly a week ago, when he surrendered a walk-off home run to Baltimore Orioles rookie catcher Samuel Basallo. He got walked off again the next night as the Dodgers found a way to squander a game in which they were one out away from completing a no-hitter. The third walk-off loss in seven days resulted in a similar scene, with Scott buried in his locker and still searching for answers.
“It’s terrible,” Scott said. “I’m having the worst year of my life. I gotta be better.”
This time, Scott could ask, “What if?” The Dodgers kept Jack Dreyer for an up-down to start the ninth inning rather than go to Scott, then pushed Blake Treinen for an up-down of his own — his first since returning off the injured list. With Alex Vesia unavailable, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts still waited until he needed the matchup to deploy what should be his most trusted reliever. The Dodgers needed a strikeout to keep the game alive, and the left-handed hitting Jung Hoo Lee was significantly more likely to do so against a left-handed pitcher (18.7 percent strikeout rate) than the right-handed Treinen (8.4 percent).
Scott appeared to have done his job, spinning a full-count slider below the strike zone that Lee chased. While the outfielder got his bat to the ball, the foul tip deflected into catcher Ben Rortvedt’s glove as he brought it towards the dirt. Crew chief and home plate umpire Bill Miller called it a strikeout, only to overturn the call when third-base umpire Chad Fairchild suggested the foul tip hit the ground and should be a foul ball.
Advertisement
“It definitely didn’t hit the ground first, but I think the way I caught it, my mitt kind of pinned the ball against the ground,” Rortvedt said. “So I thought I got it pretty flush, but even when I saw the ball, I saw the smallest little scuff mark. It definitely didn’t bounce.”
“It didn’t hit the ground,” Roberts said of the call, which is not reviewable.
Lee walked on the next pitch. An intentional walk loaded the bases with still just one out for Bailey, a switch-hitter who entered with a .594 OPS this season and a particularly ugly line against left-handed pitching (.529 OPS). Scott spiked a first-pitch slider, then tried a fastball well above the zone.
Bailey slugged it, his first home run hitting right-handed since Aug. 29, 2023.
“He knows they’re probably going to try to elevate,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said of Bailey. “I think his intent was to try to get something in the air, and if it’s at the top of the zone, he has to stay on top of it.”
The location was hardly as much of an issue as it has been for some of Scott’s other blowups.
“I mean, you can go back and look at it,” Rortvedt said. “No one’s supposed to hit that pitch. Really, no one’s supposed to hit that pitch. That’s a good fastball.”
The result was the same anyway. A predictable location, which again resulted in loud contact.
“It was a fastball above the zone,” Scott said. “Maybe I’m tipping. I have no friggin’ clue right now.”
Which leaves the Dodgers in a difficult spot as they’re trying to figure out their path to repeating. While the San Diego Padres have done little to take advantage of the door the Dodgers have left open for them (losing again Friday), there are still massive questions looming for this team once the postseason arrives. Their bullpen, now sporting a 4.20 ERA (19th in baseball), is a problem, with Scott the chief of the club’s concerns amongst a dwindling list of options.
Advertisement
As much as the organization has tried to stay firm to an uncharacteristic investment in a premium free-agent reliever, shifting him into a lower leverage spot is “something I’ve got to certainly think about,” Roberts conceded.
But even on a night when Roberts somewhat shielded his closer, the moment found him anyway. It will in October, too, as the best version of that Dodgers bullpen will likely include him in some capacity.
“We’re gonna need him,” Roberts said. “All of these leverage spots, it seems like we’re playing a lot of tight ball games. And it seems like whether it’s the sixth inning, the seventh inning or the 10th inning, it seems like they’re all leverage.”
The Dodgers and Scott aren’t operating with much margin, anyway. A lineup that roared to life for 19 runs over three games against the lowly Colorado Rockies only managed one run off 42-year-old Justin Verlander. While their pitching staff allowed just three hits on the night, they managed just four on offense, with half of those coming from a maligned free-agent signing (Michael Conforto, whose solo homer off Verlander tied the game in the seventh) and a journeyman backup catcher in Rortvedt who met all his teammates for the first time nine days ago.
Their lineup took another hit when Max Muncy exited in the eighth inning after a Joey Lucchesi sinker glanced off his right forearm. While X-rays were negative and Muncy is expected to return to the lineup Saturday, the scare was enough of a reminder of how quiet this offense was without him in it while he’s been on the injured list.
“(Then) things get magnified,” Roberts said. “And that’s tough on those guys (in the bullpen).”
The Dodgers walked away Friday night not with a win, but with a damning statistic: over Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s last two starts, the right-hander has gone 15 2/3 innings and allowed just two hits and two runs, walking just three while striking out 20 of the 51 batters he’s faced.
The Dodgers lost both games, both in walk-off fashion and with Scott on the mound.
“Those are missed opportunities,” Roberts said.
Odds are, the moment will find Scott again.
(Photo: Godofredo A. Vásquez / Associated Press)
