Chris Taylor stepped on the plate and saved his team from another elimination game.
After Tuesday night’s loss, the Los Angeles Dodgers have, once again, beaten the odds and won their seventh consecutive postseason elimination game by beating the Atlanta Braves 11-2.
This win could not have happened if it wasn’t for the spectacular performance of Taylor on the bat. Even Cody Bellinger had goosebumps as it was the eighth inning of their last game and the Dodgers already led by nine runs; nonetheless, Taylor was up to bat, sitting on three home runs, and the audience and even Bellinger could sense a fourth one coming.
“I felt like he was really going to do it,” Bellinger said. “He was seeing the ball well all day.”
Taylor struck out and settled on becoming the first player in postseason history to homer three times while his team faced elimination, and the 11th player in MLB history to hit three home runs in a post-season game. Taylor drove in six of the Dodgers’ first seven runs, giving his team the much-needed hope to pull out an 11-2 victory over the Atlanta Braves, cutting their deficit to 3-2 and pushing the series into Atlanta.
“It’s definitely a surreal feeling,” Taylor said. “I never thought I was going to hit three homers in a game, let alone a postseason game.”
Taylor’s teammate Albert Pujols called him an “unbelievable guy, great teammate.”
“Just the preparation that he goes in day-in and day-out every day, the stuff that you guys don’t get to see, but the players get to see, that’s why he has the success that he has at the plate,” said Pujols. “The highlights are going to be there the rest of his life,” he said. “That’s something you’re going to share forever.”
The Dodgers, who must win back-to-back games in Atlanta this weekend in order to advance to their fourth World Series in five years and become the 15th team to win a best-of-seven series after trailing 3-1 and the fifth to do so after trailing both 2-0 and 3-1, have now won seven consecutive elimination games, the third-longest streak in postseason history.
“I guess when our backs are against the wall, we play our best and fight,” said manager Dave Roberts. “But that’s just not an ideal spot to be in, even right now, elimination game in Game 6, but I guess it brings out the best in us.”
If the Braves can win that clinching game, it will seal a first World Series appearance since 1999. Who knows what will happen on Saturday night, but one thing is for sure if the Dodgers use this momentum they might even win the World Series again.
