September 25th, 2023 at 8:00 am 
by Ron Cervenka It was all laughs and high-fives in the Dodgers clubhouse following Chris Taylor‘s dramatic bottom-of-the-10th-inning single to right to score placed pinch-runner Amed Rosario from second base for their exciting 3-2 walk-off win over the San Francisco Giants in their final home game of the 2023 regular season at Dodger Stadium on Sunday evening.
(ESPN and Harry How)
There is certainly no disputing that it was the biggest hit of the season for the 33-year-old Virginia Beach, VA native, who the Dodgers acquired from the Seattle Mariners on June 19, 2016 in exchange for top pitching prospect Zach Lee.
But Taylor’s heroics would have been, at best, only a game-tying single had it not been for a remarkable – if not unusual – double play that ended the top half of the 10th inning.
With one out and Giants left fielder Mitch Haniger the Giants placed runner on second base, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts elected to have right-hander Shelby Miller intentionally walk always-dangerous Giants designated hitter and former Dodger Joc Pederson to (hopefully) set up an inning-ending double play.
It worked … but not how you thought it would.
With runners now at first and second and on what initially looked to be a scorching run-scoring line drive back up the middle off the bat Giants pinch-hitter Patrick Bailey, the ball deflected off Miller’s right shoulder and caromed high in the air right to aforementioned Dodgers shortstop Chris Taylor, who made a leaping grab of the ball, stepped on second base to force out Pederson, and fired a one-hopper to Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman, who scooped the ball out of the dirt, for an unusual but crucial 1-6-3 double play to end the inning with the game still tied at two.
(ESPN)
“It’s impressive, it’s not surprising, he takes grounders everyday, he’s a true shortstop,” Roberts said of Taylor postgame. “You know, to be able to have four different guys that you feel like you can plug in at shortstop at any moment is certainly comforting. It’s just nice that you can sort of deploy him wherever and whenever you need to.”
As for those first two Dodgers runs, they came courtesy of a second-inning 381-foot two-run home run to right-center field by Dodgers center fielder James Outman for his (thus far) 22nd home run and 68 RBIs on the season.
(ESPN)
The Dodgers finished their final 2023 regular-season home game with a Dodger Stadium crowd of 48,315 to bring their 2023 season home attendance to 3,837,079, the fifth largest in their storied 140-year franchise history.
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Every now and then a player comes through who is otherwise overshadowed by others yet deserves the accolades and tip of our hats. ATTA BOY CT3! Tough first half of the year for him but with a 91 wRC+ (nine percentage points below ML average) but he hung tough and posted a 116 wRC+ while playing excellent defense wherever Doc has put him in the field. Regardless of lefty or righty on the mound, Taylor deserves to be the regular LF’er in postseason considering David Peralta’s abysmal 49 wRC+ in second half.
As you well know, I was not much of a CT3 fan as recently as 2 months ago (for the very reasons you identified), but I am very much in his camp now. I am absolutely blown away by his humility. He doesn’t have an arrogant bone in his body.
As you noted, he has earned the right to be an everyday player somewhere in Dave Roberts’ lineup.