LOS ANGELES -- Down to their last three outs, the Dodgers were able to claw their way back into Monday night's ballgame against formidable Mets closer Edwin Díaz and force extra innings.
But when L.A. turned to its own top-end late-inning arm, things went south.
Tanner Scott couldn't preserve the tie in the 10th inning, allowing two runs (one earned) before the Dodgers' comeback effort fell short in a 4-3 loss to the Mets to open a four-game set at Dodger Stadium.
"Missed locations, especially down in the zone against hitters that I’m supposed to be in different spots," Scott said. "I’m just not hitting my locations, and it’s costing us."
Even though Scott became L.A.'s de facto closer after joining the team on a four-year, $72 million contract this past offseason, manager Dave Roberts technically never bestowed that title on him. Roberts explained it as a means of keeping his options open if the situation at hand called for a different matchup.
But for the most part, Scott has taken the ball in save situations. Lately, he has struggled in those spots.
Scott has blown three of his past seven save opportunities, dating back to May 20. He's been charged with two losses -- including Monday's -- in that span and allowed 12 runs (10 earned) in six innings.
"I think with Tanner, it's just missed location," Roberts said. "I just think it's just sort of missing in the big part of the plate or the wrong part of the plate, given a particular hitter. My eyes, and talking to our pitching guys, the stuff's good. It's just the command just isn't where it needs to be right now."
Said Scott: "If it’s in the right spot, it usually doesn’t get hit. If I miss location, it usually gets hit."
From his All-Star 2024 season to '25, Scott is locating his fastball differently. He's much more in the zone with it this year, but it's also in the middle of the plate.
Scott has significantly cut down on free passes as a result -- he entered the day with a 99th-percentile walk rate, compared to a seventh-percentile rate in 2024 -- but his fastball is more hittable. Opponents entered the day hitting .259 against the offering, compared to .134 last year.
"It’s getting hit a lot," Scott said. "It sucks right now. Last year, I relied on it a lot. This year, it’s getting hit and I’m missing locations."
The Dodgers entered the year with a bullpen built for leverage. But in the early days of June, they have five closer-type arms on the IL: Michael Kopech, Kirby Yates, Blake Treinen, Brusdar Graterol and Evan Phillips.
Kopech should be back first, but his first outing with the Dodgers will be his season debut so he likely won't be thrown into the deep end right away. Yates could return this weekend. But Treinen is probably at least a month away, Graterol likely won't be an option until September and Phillips is set to undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery on Wednesday.
So while Roberts would like to give Scott some lower-stress innings, he doesn't have many other options for save situations at this point in time.
"We're still trying to win games, and obviously you have to look at who's available and who can handle leverage and things like that," Roberts said. "To be quite honest, we're relying a lot on two rookies, and so you got to give credit to Jack [Dreyer] and Ben [Casparius]. But it's the other guys' responsibilities as well, who've been through the trials and had a lot more experience than those two players."
Casparius and Dreyer have indeed been two of the Dodgers' most reliable relievers this year, but a big part of their value has been their ability to take down multiple innings, saving the backend arms for high-leverage situations. Shifting the two rookies to the late innings would upset what has been a fine balance for a bullpen that leads the Majors in innings.
Given what he has to work with, if Roberts thinks Scott matches up well with the Dodgers' next save situation, he's planning on giving him the ball.
"I would," Roberts said. "I think that it's one of those things that sometimes we don't have the luxury of always having a reset for guys, given the inexperience [and] usage of certain guys. But there's a few guys that I feel comfortable finishing a game with, though."