Kersh cruises through five, Dodgers hold on for win

CINCINNATI — You gotta think Clayton Kershaw been getting a little frustrated these last few weeks. Seeing all these Cy Young graphics going up during Dodgers’ games with Scherzer, Buehler, and Urias being mentioned. Meanwhile, he’s stewing on the bench nursing an injury. And I’m sure Clayton is happy for his teammates, but eventually he’s going to want to say “Excuse me? Best pitcher of his generation over here? Remember me?”

Well, on Sunday Clayton reminded everybody just what a dominant pitcher he is. He went only five innings because of a pitch limit, but had the Reds whiffing all afternoon and left with a 6-1 lead. Once he came out, the Reds crawled back into the game, but the Dodgers got a few cheap runs late and held on to beat the Cincinnati Reds 8-5 to take the rubber game of the series and head into their off day with a win.

Dodgers all over Wade Miley

Wade Miley came into this series with the best ERA of the three Reds starters that the Dodgers would face this weekend. So, of course, he delivered the Reds’ worst start by far. The Dodgers scored on Miley early and often. After a scoreless first, the Dodgers got three in the second and three in the third off the veteran lefty. In the second they got two home runs: the first a solo shot from Will Smith and the second a two-run job from Gavin Lux. Lux is certainly making a mad dash to get himself playing time late in the year, and with the way he’s going, it’s going to be hard to put him on the bench anytime soon.

Seager and some more Lux in the third

The third inning was equally productive for the Dodgers. With Miley still out there, the scoring started off with a one-out walk to Albert Pujols. Considering the way Pujols has crushed Miley over the years, you hardly blame the guy. Only problem is, you walk Pujols and you have to face Corey Seager. And Corey Seager is swinging a hot bat right now. He just pulverized the first pitch he saw from Miley, sending the slider deep into the right centerfield stands for a 5-0 Dodgers lead.

The Dodgers had Miley on the ropes and they knew it. They continued to attack. After Will Smith grounded out, Chris Taylor smashed a double to left. After sitting out a few games with a “neck thing”, Taylor has looked much more like himself at the plate these last two games. He’s been playing centerfield all weekend, as Cody Bellinger is on the shelf nursing some sore ribs that he sustained in an outfield collision with Gavin Lux earlier in the week. But today, he went 2-for-5, which is a very good sign as he gears up for the postseason.

With Taylor at second, who should come up but our new hero Gavin Lux. And once again he came through in the clutch. He hit a ground ball up the middle that just evaded the outstretched glove of Reds second baseman Jonathan India for a run-scoring single, giving Lux a three-ribeye day. It was 6-0 Dodgers and it looked like the rout was underway.

Kershaw brilliant in second post-IL start

Meanwhile, Clayton Kershaw was bringing it from the mound on Sunday. Staked to an early lead, he attacked the strike zone, getting a mess of swing and miss from the flummoxed Reds hitters. There was only really one ball that Kersh threw all day that really got hit on the screws, and that was a double from Nick Castellanos in the bottom of the fourth. Castellanos would come around to score on a wild pitch and an infield out for the lone blemish on Kershaw’s scorecard today. Besides that, he looked every bit like a Cy Young winner: 5.0 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 8K. Vintage Kershaw.

Pen shaky but holds on

Once Kershaw left the game things didn’t go nearly so well for the Dodgers. Tony Gonsolin came in, hoping to build on a good outing earlier in the week. Sadly, he was rather ineffective. He gave up a homer on his very first pitch, and then struggled with command from then on. In just 2.1 innings of work, he gave up three runs on three hits and two walks, and really just did not look sharp. Blake Treinen had to be called on to clean up his mess in the eighth. Hopefully, Gonsolin can flush this outing pretty quickly and get back on the horse against the Diamondbacks next weekend.

Dodgers get some cheap runs, Kenley closes it out

With the bad Gonsolin performance, the score had tightened to 6-4, so things weren’t looking nearly as comfortable as they were a couple of innings earlier. Fortunately, the Reds quickly gave two runs back to the Dodgers in the top of the ninth with a mess of an inning. The Dodgers were able to turn two walks, two singles and a hit batsman into a pair of insurance runs, so they went into the bottom of the ninth with a fairly comfortable 8-4 lead.

Once again, Dave Roberts wasn’t taking any chances. He brought in Kenley Jansen for the second straight night. This time Kenley wasn’t perfect, but he was plenty good. Pinch hitter Joey Votto did scuff him up for a solo home run with one out, but Jansen quickly fanned the next two Reds and the game was over. An 8-5 win for the boys in blue.

On to Colorado

Clayton Kershaw got the win on the day, giving him a 10-7 record for the year. It is the tenth time in Clayton’s amazing career that he has reached the ten-win plateau. At this writing, he sits at 185 career wins, so should go over the 200 win mark sometime in the next year or two. Will he be a Dodger when that happens? God, I hope so.

So the Dodgers end this week with a 5-1 record. They will slowly inch their way back west during the week with stops at Colorado and then Arizona before they head for home and the final six games of the 2021 regular season. With so much on the line, the Dodgers should be thinking about a minimum of four wins over these next two road series if they want to have a chance of catching the Giants before October. Let’s go, boys. Time to man up and get this done.