LOS ANGELES — Cody Bellinger had goosebumps. It was the eighth inning of a game his Los Angeles Dodgers already led by nine runs, but Chris Taylor was up to bat, sitting on three home runs, and Bellinger could sense a fourth one coming.
“I felt like he was really going to do it,” Bellinger said. “He was seeing the ball well all day.”
Taylor instead struck out and settled for becoming the first player in postseason history to homer three times while his team faced elimination. He drove in six of the Dodgers’ first seven runs, providing a much-needed jolt as they cruised to an 11-2 victory over the Atlanta Braves in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series on Thursday night, cutting their deficit to 3-2 and pushing the series into Atlanta.
“It’s definitely a surreal feeling,” Taylor said. “I never thought I was going to hit three homers in a game, let alone a postseason game.”
The Dodgers were facing the Braves’ best pitcher, Max Fried. The opener for the Dodgers’ bullpen game, Joe Kelly, exited after four batters because of a biceps strain that will end his season. Their starting third baseman, Justin Turner, had already been ruled out. And the first half-inning ended with a two-run deficit.
Taylor helped the Dodgers overcome all of that.
His two-run homer in the bottom of the second gave the Dodgers a 3-2 lead. His single in the fourth made it a two-run game. His two-out, two-run homer off Braves reliever Chris Martin extended the Dodgers’ lead to four. And his solo homer in the seventh prompted his first curtain call. Taylor became the 11th player with a three-homer postseason game, joining names like Reggie Jackson, Babe Ruth, George Brett, Adrian Beltre and Albert Pujols, the man who hit in front of Taylor on Thursday night.
“The highlights are going to be there the rest of his life,” Pujols said. “That’s something you’re going to share forever.”
The Dodgers, who must win back-to-back games in Atlanta this weekend in order to advance to their…
Source : espn
