Steve Webb
ANAHEIM, CA — This season has taken on a familiar, though not too pleasant, pattern. The Dodgers will go into a tailspin for a few games, only to have a losing streak snapped by their ace Clayton Kershaw. And Tuesday night in Anaheim was no exception. Kersh pitched seven gritty innings, and the Dodgers were able to scratch a couple across in the top of the 8th to secure a 2-0 victory over the Angels, thus ending a three-game skid.
Though it wasn’t a dominant Kershaw performance, the Dodgers’ legend was plenty good, scattering five hits over seven innings of shut-out ball. It was the 64th time that the GOAT has gone at least seven innings and held his opponent scoreless, moving him past Don Sutton into first place in that category in Dodger history. I’m sure there’s an obscure stat that Kersh doesn’t lead the team in at this point, but we’re going to have to do some searching to find it.
However, the scoreless outing was being matched by Reid Detmers on the other side. In fact, you could argue that Detmers pitched even better than Kersh in this one. He held the Dodgers to just two singles through seven innings of great work. In fact, if not for a near-perfect throw-and-relay from Outman to Rojas to Smith to cut down Brandon Drury at the plate, it would have been Detmers who was in line for the win.
Though the play at the plate was great, it was the bottom of the seventh that showed what a truly special talent Kershaw is. After giving up a lead-off single to Drury and a double to Hunter Renfroe, Kersh found himself in deep trouble in a still-scoreless ball game. According to the run-expectancy matrix, when there are runners at second and third with nobody out, the hitting team will score 2.005 runs on average. But obviously this matrix hasn’t met Clayton Kershaw.
How about zero? First, Kersh induced a weak ground ball to short for the first out. The runners stayed put, even though a contact play would have been close at the plate. Next, Kershaw got exactly what he needed: a strikeout of Chad Wallach for out number two. Then, he battled Luis Rengifo, but with a base open, he didn’t give in, preferring to walk the bases loaded and set up forces all around. And that is just what he got; Andrew Velasquez bounced into a force-out and the inning was over. Kershaw stepped off the mound with the scoreless tie intact, something that had seemed impossible minutes before.
“He continues to do it, year in and year out,” said Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman. “It’s absolutely incredible. When we needed him the most, he did it again. He’s been doing that for the Los Angeles Dodgers since 2008, and we needed him 15 years later to do it again.”
Then, it just took a few hits to give the Dodgers the victory in this one. In the top of the 8th, the got a Miguel Rojas double, and a bad hop single from Michael Busch to score their first run, and then back-to-back singles from Freddie Freeman and Will Smith to score their second. And that was all that was needed. Caleb Ferguson was perfect in the 8th, striking out both Ohtani and Trout. And Evan Phillips was nails in the bottom of the ninth, going 1-2-3 for his eighth save of the year.
A good win all the way around. Now, let’s get some momentum going with a sweep. Game two of the Freeway Series starts at 6:30 on Wednesday night with good ol’ Shohei on the mound for the Halos. Should be fun baseball.
