Tanner Scott exposes Dodgers’ late-inning problem fans can no longer ignore

During Wednesday's series finale against the Guardians, the Dodgers were sitting on a nearly 90% win probability by the middle of the seventh. They led 4-1 thanks to a Will Smith RBI double, RBI singles for Andy Pages and Freddie Freeman, and a wild pitch from reliever Tim Herrin, which allowed Kiké Hernández to score.

Clayton Kershaw had a nice five innings, giving up just the one run to the Guardians on a José Ramirez single. Lou Trivino took over for the sixth and part of the seventh but was pulled after giving up an RBI single to Carlos Santana. Enter: Tanner Scott.

Scott, the Dodgers' closer, had a 6.43 ERA over his last seven innings going into Wednesday's game, marked by two combined innings against the Diamondbacks and Mets (1 2/3 against Arizona, 1/3 against New York) when he gave up six runs (five earned). He got out of the seventh against the Guardians unscathed, but then promptly loaded the bases in the eighth with no outs.

Nolan Jones hit a ground ball through the left side gap, and Pages slipped on the outfield grass while trying to field the ball, allowing two runs to score and tie the game.

Alex Vesia came in to replace Scott but inherited two runners on. It took three pitches for Angel Martínez to catch a 91 MPH fastball middle-middle and send it into the outfield bleachers to break the game open and decrease the Dodgers' win probability to 2.8%.

Scott now has a 12.15 ERA over his last seven games.

Tanner Scott implodes and Dodgers lose series finale to Guardians

Vesia has also been struggling lately with a 4.26 ERA in his last 15 games. Anthony Banda has a 5.87 ERA in his last seven.

Scott, Vesia, and Banda are currently the Dodgers' best late-inning options (all of whom are lefties!), given the injuries to literally anyone else who could be trusted in close games (Michael Kopech, Evan Phillips, Kirby Yates, Blake Treinen). Part of their struggles might be usage-related, as the rotation is almost as injured as the bullpen and relievers are having to cover for a lot more innings than they should, but the Dodgers can't do anything to speed up their guys to return.

Scott has 10 saves, which is pretty good, but he's also blown five save opportunities — pretty bad. The Dodgers desperately need Scott to get right, otherwise fans might as well start turning off their TVs the second he enters a high-leverage situation.