Major League Baseball

Chris Taylor's unlikely home run sinks Cardinals, keeps defending-champion Dodgers alive

Updated Oct. 7, 2021 12:04 p.m. ET

By Pedro Moura
FOX Sports MLB Writer

The baseball cleared Dodger Stadium’s left-field wall with 20 feet to spare, but Chris Taylor took off like it would land in the outfield gap.

He sprinted toward first as Cody Bellinger, certain Taylor’s blast was bound for the seats, jogged toward third. Only as he touched first base did Taylor realize he had done it. He had extended the Dodgers’ season at least three more games.

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Before Taylor’s NL wild card game-winner over the St. Louis Cardinals, only four men had ever managed walk-off homers in sudden-death postseason games. He savored the sprint around the bases, his first in a month. As he neared home, he flung his helmet high into the air and accepted all his teammates’ embraces.

"It felt good to come through for the team," Taylor said. "Especially after the last couple months."

The last couple months have been hell. Taylor earned his first All-Star Game nod in July and returned from Colorado playing better than ever. But after the Dodgers returned from a road trip at August’s start, Taylor has been the team’s least-effective hitter. The worst strikeout tendencies of his past returned. He stopped hitting for power.

It turned out a pinched nerve in his neck had been hampering him throughout that time. About a week ago, he said Wednesday, the pain stopped darting into his mind during games. If the Dodgers have the old Taylor back, there should be more wins in store for them this fall.

The Dodgers didn’t celebrate wildly only because they had staved off a premature end to a 106-win season with their 3-1 win. They celebrated wildly because their most stoic teammate looked hysterical with relief.

"Everybody that knows C.T. has been pulling for him every day, because they know how much he cares," president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman told FOX Sports. "They know how hard he works. For him to get that big hit tonight, I think it’s a great thing for the Dodgers as we look forward."

Forward is a best-of-five National League Division Series sprint against the same San Francisco Giants that narrowly bested them over the six-month marathon. All year, the Dodgers have maintained that they are superior. Now, they have one last chance to show it.

The Cardinals nearly stole that chance. Adam Wainwright stymied the Dodgers’ lineup, and St. Louis’ hitters forced Max Scherzer out after 13 outs, despite Scherzer’s best efforts to deny Dave Roberts the baseball when he emerged to pull him. Throughout the game, the Cardinals demonstrated patience, enough to generate 11 at-bats with runners in scoring position. The Dodgers only mustered five.

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But the Cardinals went hitless in those 11, successfully suppressed by the Dodgers’ bullpen, while the Dodgers were 2-for-5, Taylor supplying the second. Cardinals manager Mike Shildt also erred in removing his best reliever, Giovanny Gallegos, after only 12 sharp pitches, as the ninth inning began. Gallegos’ replacement, left-hander T.J. McFarland, was fine, but when Taylor approached, Shildt sought out the right-on-right matchup and summoned reliever Alex Reyes. Reyes missed the zone with his first three pitches, then hung a slider at Taylor’s thigh at 9:25 p.m. local time, some 255 minutes after the game’s first pitch.

That was the Cardinals’ season. Most of their players remained on the dugout railing to watch the Dodgers celebrate around home plate. Somehow, reliever Blake Treinen jumped and caught Taylor’s helmet on the fly. He joked amid the din that he deserved an opportunity with the Lakers.

Soon, the Dodgers ran for their clubhouse, which was decked out once again in protective plastic. For the first time since the 2018 NLCS, the Dodgers celebrated a postseason victory with customarily copious Champagne and beer.

But Roberts asked his players to hold off on celebrating until Taylor finished a slate of live-broadcast interviews. Finally, at 9:38 p.m., he emerged, and Roberts pointed to the famously terse Taylor to say a few words.

"This is just the start," he said. "This is the start."

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Before the game, Roberts had reiterated his trust in Taylor despite the .424 OPS he registered over his final 94 plate appearances. He said he trusted him as a player and as a person, and he said several times that the Dodgers would need him to succeed this month.

For all the value he provides, Roberts did not see fit to start Taylor on Wednesday, even as Max Muncy’s elbow injury pushed reserve Matt Beaty into the lineup. Taylor played every inning of the 2020 World Series.

"You might not start the game," Taylor said, "but you can impact the game."

In the bottom half of the ninth, all of the Dodgers were trying to predict who would provide the heroics. Another reserve, Albert Pujols, was the most popular thought, simply for the story, and he nearly fulfilled their dreams. But Scherzer maintained that he called Taylor’s strike before Bellinger batted. In fact, Scherzer said, he also called Bellinger’s walk. He did admit he envisioned an opposite-field home run from Taylor, off a fastball, not the homer he pulled off a slider.

That Scherzer happily revealed all of this, that he blew a kiss to Juan Soto in the stands after the game, said it all. He was clearly furious when Roberts came for the ball, offering instead an awkward handshake. In the dugout, he muttered and sputtered. But after Taylor’s homer, all was forgotten. The Dodgers are only nominally a wild-card team now. A normal postseason awaits, starting Friday in San Francisco. The reigning champions are alive.

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 Los Angeles 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.