It will be remembered as one of the worst blown saves in recent Dodgers history.
It will also be remembered as one of the best, but not it the typical sense.
With the Dodgers up 5-2 over the New York Mets at Citi Field heading into the bottom of the ninth on Friday night, 30-year-old Dodgers right-hander Tanner Scott allowed three runs on three hits to the five Mets batters he faced, thereby blowing his fourth save of the season and denying 26-year-old Dodgers right-hander Ben Casparius of what would have been – and should have been – his fifth win of the season. Instead, Scott gave up a single, a walk, a triple, and another single, and just like that, the Warren, OH native blew the save after making 25 pitches, of which 15 were strikes.
“There was some usage (of the bullpen) certainly that we’re going to talk through as far as protecting some downside in the next handful of days. But there were some good things that came out of tonight,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told Orange County Register’s Bill Plunkett after what ended up being a four-hour and eight-minute long game (not counting a near two-hour rain delay), with his team ultimately prevailing 7-5 in the marathon 13-inning game.
That “usage” included right-handed reliever Matt Sauer before Scott, and forcing the use of left-hander Alex Vesia, right-hander Lou Trivino, left-hander Anthony Banda, and right-hander Luis García after Scott’s train wreck.
Chief among the “good things” was a huge top-of-the-13th RBI double into the left field corner by Dodgers right fielder Teoscar Hernández to score placed runner (and Dodgers catcher) Will Smith from second base to give the Dodgers a 6-5 lead. This was followed by a single to left by Dodgers replacement second baseman Hyeseong Kim to move Teo to third, followed by a sacrifice fly to right by Dodgers left fielder Andy Pages (which ended up being a double play but allowed Hernández to tag up and score from third) to make it 7-5, which was the final score and (thankfully) brought an end to the longest game of the season for the Dodgers, and this:
Simply put, Teo saved Tanner.
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