Tyrone Taylor gave the New York Mets a lifeline in the eighth inning Saturday, driving a two-RBI double down the left field line that cut the Los Angeles Dodgers’ lead to 4-3. The burst came late enough to matter and soon enough to briefly turn a game that looked out of reach into one that was one swing from being tied.
The hit also fit the way Taylor has been swinging lately. He entered the game with 12 hits and 6 RBI in his last 17 games, and Saturday’s double kept that run going even as the Mets lost 4-3 and fell to 0-5 against the Dodgers this season.
That was the part the Mets could not escape. Nolan McLean held up well enough to keep them close, allowing only two earned runs and striking out seven in six innings, but Los Angeles still found damage when Kyle Tucker homered off him for his second homer of the series. The Dodgers’ inning stretched further after Brett Baty made an error at first base and Francisco Alvarez allowed Andy Pages to score on a passed ball. Those mistakes were costly on a night when the Mets also went 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position against Yoshinobu Yamamoto and the Dodgers pitching.
For Taylor, the question is no longer whether he is helping. He is. His bat has kept producing while the Mets keep looking for cleaner innings around him, and that is what makes Saturday sting: the surge continued, the rally arrived, and the result still did not change. The teams meet again Sunday afternoon, with the Mets needing more than one late swing if they want the story to turn.
