Dodgers News: Dave Roberts Blames Chris Taylor for 9th Inning Error in Monday's Loss to Padres

Roberts took an interesting approach here.

Once again, the Dodgers dropped a game that they should have won. LA blew a 7-2 lead over the San Diego Padres on Monday night, which was capped off by an awful ninth inning for the boys in blue.

San Diego outfielder Juan Soto hit a three-run home run to give the Friars a three-run lead in the last inning, and they never looked back. But it was another self-inflicted error from the Dodgers that cost them the game.

Outfielders Chris Taylor and James Outman collided at the beginning of the inning, leading to the downfall of the game. It allowed a ball to drop, and the Dodgers would end up losing because of it. Here's a look at the play:

Chris Taylor/James Outman Oops pic.twitter.com/K5VKDGQpW9

— Mad Choriyama (@MadChoriyama) September 12, 2023

Both men spoke about the incident after the game.

“Yeah, I mean, I think I went a little out of my territory, so the blame is on me,” Outman said. “The error should have been on me.”

Per The LA Times

It led to a two-base error, and the Dodgers couldn’t recover from the start of the inning. It’s uncharacteristic of this Dodgers team, but mistakes do happen. Thankfully, this wasn’t a game that LA desperately needed to win due to their massive lead in the division.

“Yeah, it’s baseball,” Taylor said of his error. “You try to practice for that and use your eyes as best you can. It’s kind of a weird one, where we’re both sort of running and nobody’s camped [under it], so I don’t know. It’s sort of a freak thing but obviously, it can’t happen.”

Per The LA Times

While both players seemed to chalk it up to a mistake and bad luck, manager Dave Roberts took a different approach. He said that it was Taylor’s responsibility, and put the blame on him for the error. 

“It’s kind of the rule of thumb if you can get to it as the center fielder, it’s your ball,” Roberts said. “To be quite honest, if one of them heard it, that’s (Taylor’s) responsibility to relent. But clearly he didn’t hear it so it’s something that they’re going to learn from.”

Per The OC Register

Maybe this was Roberts blaming the veteran player rather than the rookie because Taylor should have known better. But either way, it was a strange response from the manager.

LA will try to move on from the loss on Monday and finish their series with the Padres. They have two more games with San Diego before they head to Seattle for a weekend series with the Mariners.