When Clayton Kershaw takes the mound for a postseason sport, he’s going through two opponents: the opposite workforce’s hitters, and The Narrative.
The Narrative is well-documented: Kershaw, among the best pitchers the sport has ever seen, can’t get it executed within the postseason. The premise feels illogical—in fact the three-time Cy Younger award winner can reach any atmosphere—despite the fact that the conclusion has confirmed, time and time once more, to be true.
Kershaw’s playoff numbers are objectively worse than the regular-season counterparts. This isn’t the area to hash out the explanations for that disparity—maybe it’s the stiffer competitors, smaller pattern dimension or some indiscernible un-clutch gene—however fairly a chance to view how The Narrative will be impacted by components exterior of Kershaw’s management by way of the lens of Wednesday night time’s wild Recreation 2, during which the Dodgers held on to a 6-5 win.
By way of 5 innings, Kershaw was nice. He allowed simply 4 hits and one run with no walks and 6 strikeouts. Of the 16 balls Padres hitters put into play to that time, solely six had an anticipated batting common over .140. Mix this 67-pitch efficiency along with his brilliant, 13-strikeout outing in opposition to the Brewers within the wild card spherical, and you can sense a shift in The Narrative: Possibly that is the yr every part can be completely different.
Then the sixth inning occurred. Kershaw made two errors, which resulted in back-to-back homers by Manny Machado and Eric Hosmer. It made Kershaw the first pitcher to permit back-to-back residence runs thrice in a postseason profession—the newest coming in Recreation 5 of final yr’s ill-fated NLDS reduction look. As nice as Kershaw had been by way of 5 innings, issues felt all too acquainted now.
Kershaw escaped the sixth and was pulled with the 4-Three lead nonetheless intact. At this level, the sport nearly instantly went off the rails.
Within the seventh, Fernando Tatis Jr. missed a go-ahead, two-run homer by inches, as Cody Bellinger momentarily discovered how one can fly. The Dodgers added a pair of insurance coverage runs within the backside half of the inning, the second approaching an RBI single by Max Muncy that had a 73.eight mph exit velocity and anticipated batting common of .170.
Within the ninth, Kenley Jansen’s struggles continued, as he allowed three hits in 5 batters to make the rating 6-5 with two outs. Supervisor Dave Roberts changed Jansen with Joe Kelly, who walked Tatis and Machado to load the bases for Hosmer. After 4 tense pitches, Hosmer grounded out to second base to finish the sport and provides Los Angeles a 2-Zero collection lead.
If there’s some extent right here with regard to Kershaw’s postseason popularity, it’s this: The Narrative, which has tormented Kershaw for principally his whole profession, tonight hinged largely on occasions that performed out after he had left the sector for good. The anticipated batting common on Tatis’ near-dinger was .860. The ball was hit to the deepest a part of the ballpark that suppressed home runs greater than another stadium within the league this season.
Muncy’s bloop hit, Roberts’s resolution to belief Jansen and his flat cutter, and Kelly’s Harry Houdini act that allowed the Dodgers to flee all factored in tremendously to the ultimate final result. Had these moments performed out in another way, the main focus would undoubtedly have centered on Kershaw’s residence run points, or maybe discredited his win in opposition to Milwaukee as being undeserving of consideration as a “professional” playoff efficiency (contemplating the standard of opponent and MLB’s expanded postseason format). The “right here we go once more” file would start to spin.
As a substitute, Kershaw’s 2020 postseason slate stays unsullied. He’s 2-Zero with 19 strikeouts, no walks and three runs allowed in 14 innings, and the Dodgers are one win from advancing to the NLCS. For one night time, at the least, The Narrative has been placed on maintain.
