From his perch in the home team dugout, Brian O’Connor had arguably the best seat in the ballpark when Chris Taylor first introduced Virginia baseball fans to his flair for postseason dramatics.
A decade later, the both the stage and the walk-off hit were even bigger. Taylor’s two-out, two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning kept the season alive for the Los Angeles Dodgers, as it beat the St. Louis Cardinals 3-1 in Wednesday night’s NL Wild Card Game.
But this time, UVa’s head baseball coach wasn't quite as locked in.
“I go to bed too early,” O’Connor admitted on Thursday, “so I watched the highlights this morning.”
Taylor first became a hero to UVa fans with a walk-off RBI single in the ninth inning of the deciding third game of the Wahoos’ 2011 NCAA super regional series against UC Irvine. That hit sent the Hoos back to Omaha for what was the second of now five appearances at the College World Series.
Ten years later, Taylor has emerged as the headliner of a growing fraternity of former UVa baseball players in the big leagues. The program produced 15 players who appeared in major league games this season, including four—pitchers Daniel Lynch (Kansas City) and Alec Bettinger (Milwaukee), infielder Ernie Clement (Cleveland) and outfielder Jake McCarthy (Arizona)—who made their MLB debuts. At the end of the regular season, 10 former Wahoos were on big league rosters; another 23 were playing in the minors.
Over the past three seasons, 13 UVa products have made their MLB debuts, the most of any college program. As O’Connor brought up Thursday morning, eight players from Virginia’s 2015 NCAA title team have appeared in the majors.
“That’s pretty cool,” said O’Connor, who has coached 28 future big leaguers since arriving in Charlottesville in 2004.
A 2020 inductee into the Virginia Baseball Hall of Fame, Taylor was originally a fifth round pick of the Seattle Mariners in 2012, but didn’t establish himself at the major league level until getting traded to Los Angeles in 2016. A first-time all-star this summer, Taylor has appeared in 657 regular season games for the Dodgers, playing everywhere in the field but first base or catcher in that stretch.
After Wednesday’s walk-off win, Taylor has six home runs in 52 career playoff games, both the most all-time among former UVa players. He’s appeared in 18 games across three World Series appearances with the Dodgers, and last fall helped the franchise win its first championship since 1988.
On his way out of town Thursday morning, O’Connor found a few minutes to talk about Taylor’s latest heroics:
What was your reaction when you woke up and saw that walk-off homer?
"I looked at the ESPN app and he’s on it. It was awesome. Then my son tells me this morning that he’s only the fourth Dodger in history to hit a walk-off home run in the playoffs.”
What has it been like watching the career that Taylor has been able to carve out with the Dodgers?
“It’s a great story. Obviously we all know about his career here, but when he was with Seattle he just had a tough time sticking there in the big leagues. And then the trade to Los Angeles and he made some adjustments, what he was doing with his swing and things like that. It’s kind of ‘right time, right place,’ and he capitalized on it and has had an incredible career so far there. His versatility, I mean, Dave Roberts loves him. And has to, because the guy can play practically any position on the field."
"Obviously in his career he’s had a flair for the dramatic, that’s for sure. What, 10 years ago he walked it off against Irvine, and 10 years later he’s doing it in the Wild Card. So pretty cool."
Do certain guys just have that flair for the dramatic?
"I think so, and then there’s certain guys that have it the other way. That they wilt and they don’t perform in the clutch. A few years ago he was MVP of the [2017 NL Championship Series], him and Turner were co-MVPs. He’s shown a knack for it, for sure. He certainly doesn’t back down from those situations."
To have a player representing your program on that stage, how special is that for the program?
"Oh, it’s great. You take it any time you can get it. It certainly helps, not only your current team seeing it but for recruits and everybody. This time of the year, playoff baseball is awesome because when you have guys in it and perform, it brings a lot of attention to your program."
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