The Tanner Scott experience once again led the Los Angeles Dodgers to a catastrophic loss.
The embattled Dodgers relief pitcher took the blame after he again blew up for his 10th blown save of the season when he allowed two runs in the bottom of the ninth in their 5-4 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday.
Scott and the Dodgers bullpen again cost superstar starting pitcher Shohei Ohtani another victory. The ace threw six scoreless innings — his longest outing of the season — and exited with a 4-0 advantage.
Yet, the Dodgers loss, coupled with the San Diego Padres‘ 7-0 win over the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday, dropped their advantage atop the NL West to just 1.5 games with five to play.
Tanner Scott Put Himself ‘In A Bad Situation’
Scott had started to look like he was finding his old, All-Star self over the past 10 days. He had not allowed a run in four appearances and had struck out five in four innings in that span.
But Tuesday was more of the inconsistent pitcher who could not locate his stuff or finish hitters — an especially troubling fact since he was facing the bottom of the D-Backs batting order.
Scott hit Ildemaro Vargas on a 2-2 pitch then walked pinch hitter Tim Tawa on four pitches. He got ahead of catcher James McCann 0-2, but McCann still managed to get a sacrifice bunt down that moved the runners along.
“I hit the first guy and walked the second guy,” Scott said. “That puts yourself in a pretty tough spot to get out of. I wasn’t executing pitches.”
Looking for a strikeout, Scott again got ahead 0-2 before giving up a sacrifice fly to Jorge Barrosa — that actually would have been a walk-off home run if the game were played in Houston — that tied the game at 4.
One pitch from getting the Dodgers to extra innings, Scott gave up the game-winning single to Geraldo Perdomo on a 3-2 slider, which scored Tawa.
“We should’ve won the game. It’s my fault,” Scott said. “For this to happen, it sucks. It’s got to end tonight. Tomorrow is a new day.”
Dave Roberts: Tanner Scott ‘Went Too Heavy On the Slider’
According to Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, Scott got in trouble by overthrowing his slider, which is his No. 2 pitch.
According to Baseball Savant, Scott throws his slider 46 percent of the time — deferring mainly to his four-seam fastball. But Tuesday, Scott threw 15 sliders on 21 pitches, including the hit by pitch on Vargas and Perdomo’s game-winning single.
“He went way too heavy on the slider,” Roberts said. “Really didn’t provide a threat for a fastball that I feel plays [well] now. It speaks to the predictability. He left a slider up to Perdomo, and we got walked off.”
Roberts, who is usually reserved while speaking about his players, went in on Scott more than usual in his postgame media availability.
“You can’t hit Vargas with the fifth slider,” Roberts said. “There’s a walk in there. It’s hard enough to get guys out without giving free passes.”
The Dodgers rank 26th in the majors in bullpen ERA since Sept. 1 (5.69) and are tied for the most losses in that span (8). LA starting pitchers have not gotten a loss since Sept. 4, but Scott and fellow struggling reliever Blake Treinen have picked up all seven losses in that span.
“It’s tough,” Roberts said. “After Shohei pitches the way he did, and you have a 4-0 lead, thinking that we are using higher-leverage guys to keep those guys at bay, and we didn’t have a good night. It’s hard to absorb those games, especially when we need to win those games right now.”
Dodgers Closer Tanner Scott Takes Blame For Brutal Walk-off Loss