SAN FRANCISCO — In a rivalry game that begged for a clean tenth, the Dodgers instead absorbed another body blow. Patrick Bailey’s walk-off grand slam on Friday night turned a tense 1–1 stalemate into a 5–1 loss—and marked the third walk-off charged to Tanner Scott in a little over a week. The inning hinged on a disputed foul-tip/no-strikeout moment that extended an at-bat and shifted the chessboard, but Scott refused to hide behind the controversy, saying he “gave up a bad bad pitch to a hitter that can hit fast balls and cost us again,” adding, “Just tired of it happening and it’s miserable.”
That frankness matters, because the ending told a familiar story about pitch selection and location. Asked whether the sequence was about the call or the choice, Scott admitted the execution failed at the worst moment: it was “definitely…a fast ball above the zone,” and while he conceded “maybe I’m tipping,” he also confessed, “I…no freaking clue right now.” Whatever the precise cause—predictability, a tiny tell, or just a heater left where Bailey could hammer it—the miss lived in the danger band. In leverage, belt-high four-seams to fastball hunters are roulette.
You can hear how scrambled the feedback loop feels for him. “I mean, yeah. I mean, I don’t know if I’m tipping or what, but I don’t know. They’re they’re on everything, so sucks.” That line lands like a diagnosis of two overlapping problems: hitters are sitting the right zones, and his counterpunch hasn’t arrived quickly enough. Whether the issue is a real tell (grip window, time to first move, hold pattern) or simply too much comfort with the heater, the fix starts with changing eyes earlier in the count, then finishing below barrels—not above them—when the game’s on a knife’s edge.
The numbers underline the urgency. Scott’s 2025 line now sits at a 5.01 ERA and 1.27 WHIP with 21 saves and 9 blown saves across 54 appearances (50.1 IP). The team is 43–11 when he appears, a reminder that plenty of his nights have been quiet and clean, but the blowups have exacted a heavy cost—his -0.8 WAR tells you how a handful of disasters can tilt a reliever’s season. For a first-place club with October expectations, that ERA/BS combo is a flashing warning light.
Usage hasn’t been gentle. Thirty of his 54 outings have come in the ninth, many with traffic and the lineup’s thumpers looming. That’s the job, of course, but when feel wobbles in max-stress windows, the margins vanish and every borderline call—like Friday’s foul-tip ruling—gets magnified. Scott isn’t sugarcoating the headspace either: “Uh yeah, it’s terrible. I mean, I’m having the worst year of my life, so it’s I don’t know. I got to be better.”
Friday’s decision tree also deserves a review. After the extended plate appearance to Rafael Devers turned into a walk, the Dodgers issued an intentional pass to set up the Bailey matchup—only to funnel the inning toward the very pitch and zone he was primed to punish. That doesn’t mean the intentional walk was automatically wrong; it means your next pitch can’t be the predictable one. If the free base doesn’t shrink the danger cone, rethink it or make sure the finishing pitch lives in a different corridor (arm-side run at the knees, or a conviction secondary that starts as a strike and dives under the barrel).
What can change—now—without drama or declarations?
- Short runway, lower rung. Give Scott a week of seventh/easier-eighth looks to re-center. Let Blake Treinen and Alex Vesia eat the hair-on-fire spots while Scott stacks 12–15 pitch wins earlier in the evening.
- Sequencing guardrails. If you elevate early to change eyes, the finisher has to be down. Behind in the count? Resist the “prove it” high four-seam; a well-located secondary in the zone beats a belt-high challenge.
- Fast tipping audit. Quick video check on glove flare, set position, holds, and rhythm. If there’s even a five-percent tell, kill it. If not, treat the “they’re on everything” feeling as predictability, not giveaway.
Through it all, Scott’s perspective on the mental reset is exactly what you want from a closer who’s been punched in the mouth by the baseball gods: “Just got to move on. move on to the next day and try to win the next game and not really think upon…” He trails off there, but the point is clear. The Dodgers don’t need a scapegoat; they need outs. Scott’s stuff is still closer-caliber. A brief role tweak, firmer pitch-selection rails, and a quick look under the hood can restore the conviction that turns 50/50s into handshakes.
If he turns the page—and he can—the narrative flips fast. Until then, treat the ninth as a committee, buy him a few quieter innings, and demand that the next elevated fastball shows up only when it’s by design, not by drift.
Thing is, he’s got two weeks to figure it out. Or, we might have another Craig Kimbrel situation on our hands in October.
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