Chris Taylor, Dodgers rise to the occasion, blast Braves in Game 5 to stay alive
By Pedro Moura
FOX Sports MLB Writer
Chris Taylor turned Cody Bellinger into a spectator.
As Taylor batted for a fifth time Thursday at Dodger Stadium, trying to become the first man to hit four home runs in a playoff game, Bellinger stood in the on-deck circle with his arms crossed, his bat a mere ornament. The game’s outcome was no longer in doubt, but he felt goosebumps growing on his arms. He hardly pretended to be there for any purpose beyond watching his teammate aim at history.
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The Los Angeles Dodgers got a much-needed power surge in an 11-2 victory over the Atlanta Braves in Game 5 of the NLCS. Chris Taylor hit three home runs in the contest, and AJ Pollock added two.
Taylor did not hit that, but he hit just about everything else in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series, a Dodgers victory so potent it could only be interpreted as an announcement, for once and for all, that they are most comfortable playing baseball when confronting an imminent threat to their ability to do so.
Bellinger had watched from the same spot as Taylor’s first swing of the night landed a baseball in the Dodgers’ bullpen. Taylor didn’t watch; he knew as soon as he swung that he had vaulted his team ahead of the Braves. It was only the second inning, but until Taylor struck, it felt like defeat was a few outs away for the Dodgers. Once he did, it felt like days away.
It is now.
In large part because of Taylor, the Dodgers staved off elimination for the fourth time in 15 days and forced a third leg of this series back in Atlanta this weekend. They bested the Braves 11-2, despite opposing Atlanta’s ace, Max Fried, despite utilizing a bullpen game, despite losing their opener to a season-ending injury. They won the game they were least likely to win. If it seems the Dodgers play their best baseball only when they have to, well, that's because they do.
Mookie Betts sounded downtrodden before the game. He noted that the Dodgers had to deploy Max Scherzer to finish off the Giants in the NLDS, that they were "kind of behind the eight-ball" as a result.
"But that’s not an excuse," Betts continued. "We still have to go out, and we have to do our side, which is hit, which we haven’t been doing."
Game 5 could not have started worse for the Dodgers. Two batters in, Ozzie Albies punched a Joe Kelly pitch to third base, only there was no third baseman because of a shift. Three pitches later, Freddie Freeman hammered a hanging curveball deep into Dodger Stadium’s bleachers. Before he could finish the inning, Kelly’s biceps ached. He asked out with a strike to go. The rest of the Dodgers’ bullpen pieced together a commendable effort: Six men combined to strike out nine, walk none and allow only three hits in 8 1/3 innings.
AJ Pollock began the reversal with a second-inning homer, his first in 29 postseason games as a Dodger. Albert Pujols then slapped a two-strike single, and Taylor teed off on a first-pitch middle-middle fastball from Fried. That’s the one that landed in the bullpen.
An inning later, Taylor attacked another first-pitch Fried fastball, scoring another run on a single. In the fifth inning, Braves manager Brian Snitker finally pulled Fried as Taylor approached for a third time. Against right-handed reliever Chris Martin, Taylor pounced on another fastball for another two-run home run. Across the first five pitches he saw Thursday, Taylor swung three times. With those three swings, he drove in five runs.
He needed four swings to drive in his next run with a seventh-inning solo homer. Only one Dodger, Kiké Hernández, has ever driven in more runs in a postseason game than Taylor’s six. And after the Dodgers rallied for insurance in the eighth, Taylor swung for his chance at history. He struck out swinging.
"He wasn't going to walk," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said afterward with a smile.
For once, Roberts could be OK with an over-aggressive player. For much of this series, the Dodgers’ chases have frustrated him. On Thursday, his hitters were so patient they could afford to swing for the fences late.
When asked afterward about his players’ seven-game winning streak in elimination games since 2019 and what it says about them, Roberts started to say he hated it. Then he paused and collected his wits.
"I guess," he said, "when our backs are against the wall, we play our best."
There’s no point fighting the truth, but still, the Dodgers scoffed at a question about whether they prefer to play in these situations. Pollock said they preferred to do the eliminating. But he also allowed that it does not seem to affect them much.
"I think elimination, not elimination — it doesn't matter," he said. "We feel good about our team and our chances."
Taylor is the best argument in favor of that theory. Since college, teammates have been describing him as the same guy every day, no matter whether he’s playing, no matter where he’s playing. On Thursday, he started his 20th career game at third base, there because Justin Turner blew a hamstring in Wednesday’s loss.
The 31-year-old Taylor is a simple man. He likes beer, fantasy football and surfing. He doesn’t raise his voice or pout. He gave the crowd a curtain call Thursday, yes, but only after his teammates prodded him. His postgame countenance did not reveal if his team had won or lost.
"He's not," Pollock said, "a big guy for the drama."
And yet the Dodgers have made this series dramatic again.
Pedro Moura is the national baseball writer for FOX Sports. He most recently covered the Dodgers for three seasons for The Athletic. Previously, he spent five years covering the Angels and Dodgers for the Orange County Register and L.A. Times. More previously, he covered his alma mater, USC, for ESPNLosAngeles.com. The son of Brazilian immigrants, he grew up in the Southern California suburbs. Follow him on Twitter @pedromoura.