Dodgers’ Scott struggles again: ‘It’s costing us’
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Alden Gonzalez
LOS ANGELES — A sleepy Los Angeles Dodgers offense finally sprung to life in the late innings Monday night, tying the score to force extra innings — and then Tanner Scott got hit around and sunk his team.
It’s been a trend.
Scott, who allowed two 10th-inning runs to score in a 4-3 loss to the New York Mets, holds a 4.72 ERA through his first 28 appearance since joining the Dodgers on a four-year, $72 million contract in the offseason. His past seven outings have seen him get charged with 10 earned runs on 13 hits in six innings, a stretch in which he has sustained two losses and two blown saves.
“I’m just not hitting my locations,” Scott said, “and it’s costing us.”
And it seems as if the Dodgers have no choice but to keep entrusting him with close leads late, as alternatives are scant. Evan Phillips, who finished 64 of the Dodgers’ regular-season games these past two years, will undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery later this week. Four other high-leverage relievers are currently on the injured list, a group that includes Michael Kopech, Kirby Yates, Blake Treinen and Brusdar Graterol. Another experienced right-hander, Luis Garcia, hit the IL with a groin strain last week.
The Dodgers’ bullpen has nonetheless absorbed more innings than any other group in the major leagues, a byproduct of the injuries that have also plagued the rotation. Two rookies in particular, Ben Casparius and Jack Dreyer, have combined to absorb nearly 70 of them.
“You have to give credit to Jack and Ben, but it’s the other guys’ responsibilities as well who’ve been through the trials and have a lot more experience than those two players,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I just don’t think it’s right to put everything on those two young players. I don’t.”
Roberts, managing a bullpen that skews drastically left-handed these days, needs more from Alex Vesia and Anthony Banda, two seasoned southpaws who have combined for a 3.86 ERA.
Mostly, though, he needs more from Scott.
The 30-year-old left-hander struggled early in his career but put himself on the map with a dominant season in Miami in 2023, posting a 2.31 ERA in 74 appearances. He was even better the following year, making his first All-Star team and finishing the regular season with a 1.75 ERA. But it’s what he did in the playoffs that resonated most with the Dodgers’ front office.
While pitching for the division rival San Diego Padres, Scott made four scoreless appearances against the Dodgers in the National League Division Series. His job was mostly to help limit Shohei Ohtani, and Scott did so by striking him out each of the four times he faced him. The Dodgers were impressed enough to lavish Scott with the type of money they hardly ever shell out for a relief pitcher.
So far, though, that version of Scott has been mostly nonexistent.
Heading into the start of a four-game series against the Mets, Scott ranked within the bottom 12% in the sport in average exit velocity and within the bottom 21% in hard-hit rate. Ohtani put the Dodgers on the board with a 424-foot home run that cleared the right-field bullpen in the seventh inning, his NL-leading 23rd, then tied the score with a sacrifice fly to the left-field warning track in the bottom of the ninth. But the Mets hit Scott immediately in the next half-inning.
Francisco Alvarez started with a scorching double to right field, bringing in the automatic runner. Francisco Lindor followed with a line-drive single to left, making it a two-run game. Both came on fastballs. Opposing hitters slugged just .179 against Scott’s four-seam fastball last year.
This year, they’re slugging .581, even though the pitch’s characteristics are similar.
“It’s getting hit a lot,” Scott said. “It sucks right now. Last year I relied on it a lot, and this year it’s getting hit and I’m missing locations.”
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Chase Elliott somehow stole Sunday’s race at Kansas Speedway, where he drove from eighth to the checkered flag during a two-lap overtime sprint to earn a spot in the third round of NASCAR’s playoffs.
It was a wild ending to a race that probably should have been won by Denny Hamlin, who dominated and led 159 laps until a bevy of late issues denied him his chance at career win No. 60 for Joe Gibbs Racing.
The race had a slew of late cautions — Hamlin dropped from the lead to seventh on a slow pit stop — that put Bubba Wallace in position to win the race. A red-flag stoppage for Zane Smith flipping his car set up the final overtime restart and Wallace was holding tight in a door-to-door battle with Christopher Bell for the victory.
Then Hamlin came from nowhere to catch Wallace, who drives for the team Hamlin co-owns with Michael Jordan, and Wallace scraped the wall as he tried to hold off his boss. That’s when Elliott suddenly entered the frame and smashed Hamlin in the door to get past him for his second win of the season.
“What a crazy finish. Hope you all enjoyed that. I certainly did,” NASCAR’s most popular driver told the crowd after collecting the checkered flag.
Elliott joins Ryan Blaney as the two drivers locked into the third round of the playoffs. The field will be cut from 12 drivers to eight after next week’s race in Concord, North Carolina and Elliott said once he got in position for the victory, he wasn’t giving up.
“I wasn’t going to lift, so I didn’t know what was going to happen. I figured at the end of the day, it was what it was at that point,” Elliott said. “Wherever I ended up, I ended up. At that point, we were all committed. Really cool just to be eighth on the restart and somehow win on a green-and-white checkered. Pretty neat.”
Hamlin finished second and was clearly dejected by the defeat. The three-time Daytona 500 winner is considered the greatest driver to never win a Cup title and needed the victory to lock up his spot in the next round of the playoffs. He also has a 60th Cup win set as a major career goal and is stuck on 59 victories.
He drove the final 50-plus laps with his power steering on the fritz.
“Just super disappointing. I wanted it bad. It would have been 60 for me,” Hamlin said. “Obviously got really, really tight with [Wallace], and it just got real tight and we let [Elliott] win.
“Man, I wanted it for my dad. I wanted it for everybody. Just wanted it a little too hard.”
Hamlin was followed his JGR teammates Bell and Chase Briscoe, who were third and fourth.
Wallace wound up fifth and even though the victory would have moved him deeper into the playoffs than he’s ever been in his career, he was satisfied considering how poorly his car was running earlier in the race. He wasn’t even upset with Hamlin, and he shook hands with his boss on pit road.
“To even have a shot at the win with the way we started … you could have fooled me. We were not good,” Wallace said. “Two years ago I’d probably say something dumb [about Hamlin]. He’s a dumbass for that move. I don’t care if he’s my boss or not. But we’re going for the win. I hate that we gave it to Chevrolet there.”
Elliott, in a Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, was the only non-Toyota driver in the top five.
Next up is a playoff elimination race at the hybrid oval/road course at Charlotte Motor Speedway, where Kyle Larson won a year ago. The playoff field will be cut from 12 drivers to eight following next Sunday’s race.
The four drivers in danger of playoff elimination headed into that race are Ross Chastain, Austin Cindric, Reddick and Wallace.
“Obviously there’s only one thing we can do at Charlotte (win), and that’s what we’ll be focused on,” Reddick said.
Rodney Childers, who guided Kevin Harvick to the 2014 Cup Series championship, has finally landed a new job after he was let go as crew chief at Spire Motorsports in April.
Childers will be the crew chief at JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series for the No. 1 Chevrolet, which will be split between Carson Kvapil and Connor Zilisch. It will be Childers’ first time as an Xfinity Series crew chief.
“Rodney’s résumé and career speak for themselves,” said Dale Earnhardt Jr., co-owner of JR Motorsports. “Rodney and I grew up together and have known each other since we were kids. That’s a relationship that has always been close and has remained close to this day. We’ve always had interest in working together in motorsports, and I’m thankful that this opportunity came about and we could bring him into the JRM family.”
Childers worked with Justin Haley at Spire, but the team parted ways with him when both driver and crew chief said the relationship wasn’t working.
Childers won 40 races and a Cup title at Stewart-Haas Racing with Harvick then worked with Josh Berry in 2024 when Harvick retired. That was the final year Stewart-Haas Racing existed.
Also on Saturday, NASCAR confirmed it has parted ways with race director Jusan Hamilton with six races remaining in the season. He is no longer listed as an employee at NASCAR, where his official title was managing director for competition operations.
Hamilton first joined NASCAR as an intern in 2012 and returned in 2016 under various roles. He oversaw NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program, pit crew development and the pro iRacing NASCAR divisions as well as serving as a race director.
Hamilton was instrumental in setting both the annual schedule and the schedule for each race weekend. His first event as race director was in 2018 at Pocono Raceway. In 2022, Hamilton became the first Black race director to officiate the Daytona 500.
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