Dodgers: Dave Roberts Calls Chris Taylor’s At-Bat the Best of the Year

Monday night had one of those moments that everyone can look back on at the end of the season and smile. The at-bat that Chris Taylor put up for the Dodgers in the 6th inning was absolutely one of those moments.

Taylor came up with 2 outs and the game all tied up to face a hard-throwing left-handed pitcher in Genesis Cabrera. The Dodgers utilityman fouled off 8 2-pitch strikes and forced him to throw a total of 14 pitches. All of this happened with the game in the balance. 

Taylor eventually laced one into the gap and cleared the bases to give the Dodgers a 3-run lead. It certainly caught the attention of Dave Roberts, who later called it the at-bat of the year for Los Angeles. 

That was a huge at-bat, the difference in the game. He just wasn’t gonna be denied. The guy is throwing 97-98 mph with a breaking ball and changeup. CT was just relentless in that at-bat. It was probably the best one we’ve had this year.

Taylor came up in a tough spot against Cabrera. He was all over the place in previous at-bats but locked in to punch out Gavin Lux. But he found the zone and kept pounding it against Taylor, who continued to foul off pitch after pitch. The Dodgers infielder talked about his approach after the game. 

I knew he had a good fastball with some off-speed stuff in there as well. I was trying to keep it short and simple, sort of single him to death, play pepper, not try to do too much. I knew I had been up there for a while. I didn’t realize it was 14 pitches.

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In terms of all-time great at-bats, it’s gotta rank up there for the Dodgers franchise. It’s obviously only a regular-season game, but it’s one I think we’ll all remember at the end of the year. 

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