Dodgers embarrassed the Mets' bullpen in most un-Dodgers way possible Tuesday

On Tuesday evening, the Dodgers snapped a five-game slide with back-to-back wins against the Mets at Citi Field, after Monday's scheduled start was rained out. In Game 1 of the doubleheader, the Mets went up by two in the third inning when Francisco Lindor homered to score himself and Tomás Nido, while the Dodgers' bats were almost completely unable to get anything done until the eighth, when Freddie Freeman drove in a run.

In the ninth, Adam Ottavino was hit with a blown save opportunity when the furiously slumping Chris Taylor stepped up and did something the Dodgers almost never do: showed a bunt and tapped a pitch that almost certainly would've been called a ball halfway between the mound and the first base line.

Ottavino, maybe caught off guard by the attempt, stumbled and couldn't grab ahold of the ball, while Taylor put his head down and booked it to first without a throw even being attempted. It scored Teoscar Hernández to tie the game. The Mets couldn't rise to the occasion with a walk-off in the ninth, so the game went into extras, with a Mookie Betts RBI single and a two-run home run for Freeman solidifying the game for the Dodgers.

Chris Taylor's rare sac bunt secured the win for the Dodgers against the Mets on Tuesday

The Dodgers almost never bunt. They've only tried twice through this first third of the season, and only five times throughout 2023. Bunting has its detractors, who typically think it's a cheap strategy (especially in extra innings), and the Dodgers are supposed to have big, fearsome bats that win them games through homers and extra base hits.

But Taylor, who only just got his batting average over .100 on May 24, had nothing to lose, and the Dodgers really couldn't afford adding to the losing streak against the 22-32 Mets, who also snapped a five-game losing streak of their own in a narrow walk-off against the Giants on Sunday before going back to losing twice against the Dodgers.

The Mets' starter on Tuesday afternoon, Tylor Megill, was just about lights-out; he pitched seven innings and only gave up three hits and no runs, but the bullpen lost control of the game to to let the Dodgers get ahead and secure the win. Even though it was on a bunt, Taylor got to play the hero for the first time this season while the Mets dropped their sixth straight series.