Little has gone right for Tanner Scott in his first season with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and that surfaced again Friday night as he surrendered a walk-off home run to Baltimore Orioles rookie Samuel Basallo.
The homer was Scott’s 10th allowed this year. Prior to this season his career high was six home runs given up, which occurred in 2018 and 2021. Scott gave up a combined six home runs from 2023-2024 while emerging as one of baseball’s best closers. If extending that to include 2022, it’s only 11 homers.
Compounding matters in the series opener against the Orioles was the Dodgers were coming off being swept by the Pittsburgh Pirates, and Scott struck out the first two batters faced in the bottom of the ninth. He got ahead in the count 1-2 to Basallo before going to an elevated fastball that was fouled off and then leaving another over the heart of the plate.
Scott expressed frustration and admitted to a poor pitch after the Dodgers’ walk-off loss, as seen on SportsNet LA:
“I definitely made the wrong pitch selection on that and it cost us again. I’m tired of that happening. Baseball hates me right now.”
Scott’s appearance on Friday was his first since Aug. 31, when he also gave up a home run. That was a three-run blast to Corbin Carroll that allowed the Arizona Diamondbacks to tie the game in the eighth inning. The blown save was Scott’s eighth of the season, another unwanted career high.
“It’s super frustrating,” Scott said that afternoon of his trouble with the long ball this season. “You never want to see the ball leave the park, especially in that situation. It’s super frustrating. Just got to go out there and fix it.”
Tanner Scott throwing too many strikes?
One theory that’s been posited about Scott’s ongoing struggles this season is an increase on pitches in the strike zone compared to his career average.
At one point it was believed to have stemmed from a mechanical issue, but Scott and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts recently ruled that out.
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