Kershaw overcomes early struggles vs. Nats
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LOS ANGELES -- Clayton Kershaw pitches for a juggernaut. He is 31 years old and still has plenty of baseball left. But Father Time catches up with everyone, meaning that with each passing postseason outing, the greatest left-handed pitcher of his generation has one fewer opportunity to rewrite his October story.
The Dodgers' 4-2 loss to the Nationals in Game 2 of the National League Division Series began as another grind. Kershaw contributed six quality innings broken into two unequal parts, finishing with four scoreless frames from the third inning through the top of the sixth, before Kershaw was replaced by a pinch-hitter amid the first Dodgers rally of any significance against Nationals co-ace Stephen Strasburg.
| Game | Date | Result | Highlights |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gm 1 | Oct. 3 | LAD 6, WSH 0 | Watch |
| Gm 2 | Oct. 4 | WSH 4, LAD 2 | Watch |
| Gm 3 | Oct. 6 | LAD 10, WSH 4 | Watch |
| Gm 4 | Oct. 7 | WSH 6, LAD 1 | Watch |
| Gm 5 | Oct. 9 | WSH 7, LAD 3 | Watch |
Shop for postseason gear: Those final four innings were quality Kershaw. But the first two innings were not. And they were the difference in a loss that evened the best-of-five series at 1 as it shifts to Nationals Park for Sunday's Game 3.
“They got on him quick, but Kersh did what he did,” Dodgers center fielder Cody Bellinger said. “He ended up pitching really well for us and kept us in the ballgame all game long.”
Trouble was, the Nationals had the runs they needed to win the game before the Dodgers sent their fourth batter to the plate. Trea Turner’s double past third baseman Justin Turner’s backhand stab on the first pitch of the game made it five times in Kershaw’s past six postseason starts that he allowed a leadoff hit. When Turner scored on Howie Kendrick’s bases-loaded single to put the Dodgers in a 1-0 hole, it carried over a trend from the regular season, when Kershaw’s 5.79 ERA in the first inning was more than two runs higher than any other frame.
“First pitch of the game, he gets a little squibber down the line, took a funny hop, but a play I should have made and that turns into a run,” Justin Turner said. “[Kershaw] probably left a couple pitches up the next inning, but he was great, pounded the zone, used all his pitches, kept us in the game.”
In each of the first two innings, Kershaw hit a batter. That matched his total from all 178 1/3 innings in the regular season. The second-inning hit batsman was Nationals leadoff man Victor Robles, who scored on the first of successive run-scoring hits from Adam Eaton (single) and Anthony Rendon (double) for a 3-0 Washington lead.
Kershaw then settled in, finishing with three runs allowed on six hits and a walk in six innings while striking out four. He threw 99 pitches and will be available for a potential Game 5, should this series find its way back to Dodger Stadium.
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“I thought [Kershaw] did a good job of bearing down and giving us six,” outfielder Chris Taylor said. “We know we’re usually going to get six out of him. He’s been as consistent as anybody all year. Once he gets in his groove, he’s tough.”
The Nationals got to Kershaw before he could find that groove, and the critical at-bat, Kershaw said, belonged to Eaton in the second. Kershaw was ahead in the count, 0-1, and even at 2-2 with two outs before Eaton fouled off one fastball before hitting another -- it was above the zone -- to left-center field for an RBI single. Rendon’s double followed on the next pitch, a down-the-middle fastball.
“I was able to get out of the first inning with limited damage. That inning could have gotten bigger. That’s not what killed us,” Kershaw said. “That second inning was not good. That was the decision of the game.
“You get two strikes, two outs on a hitter, they shouldn’t score any runs. And they score two more, and that was the difference in the game.”
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Kershaw is the sixth Dodgers pitcher with two hit batsmen in a postseason game, and the first since Rich Hill in the 2016 NLDS against the Nationals. Notably, Orel Hershiser plunked a pair in his Game 7 NL Championship Series shutout in 1988.
History says Kershaw will be working with a thin margin for error next time he takes the mound in October. The Dodgers fell to 3-11 when he allows three or more runs as the starter in a postseason game. Their last such win was in Game 1 of the 2017 NLDS against the D-backs.
“For Clayton to save our 'pen, as you look [forward], our high-leverage guys, a lot of our guys that we look to are rested,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “We're ready for Game 3. For him to give us six innings was big.”
“We had our chances, for sure,” said Kershaw, who is 9-11 with a 4.32 ERA in 158 career postseason innings. “[Strasburg] didn’t give us much of anything.”