Steve Webb
CHAVEZ RAVINE, CA — All hail to the new king. Clayton Kershaw, the most dominant pitcher of his generation, and perhaps one of the best regular season pitchers of all time, is now the Dodgers’ undisputed King of the K. With his seven punch-outs on Saturday, he moves past Don Sutton on that list, and sits alone at the top with a tidy 2700, a number that will only go up as his career continues.
However, it was not all good at the ballpark on Saturday. Though Kershaw only gave up one earned run and pitched plenty well enough to win over his six innings of work, he got virtually no support from his offense, a stark contrast to his three previous starts in which he got an average of seven runs of support in each contest. Instead, in this one there was only a Mookie Betts leadoff homerun on the Dodgers’ side of the ledger, and the usually reliable bullpen gave up four runs in the late innings as the Dodgers fell to the Detroit Tigers by a score of 5-1.
Leadoff dinger from Betts
Mookie Betts continues to show positive signs of coming out of his early season slump at the plate. In this one, Betts went 2-for-4, including that leadoff homerun. In the bottom of the first, after Kershaw had pitched an efficient 1-2-3 top of the frame, Betts stepped into the box against Tiger rookie Beau Brieske, who was making only his second big-league start. Betts fouled off the first pitch, but then got a meaty changeup over the heart of the plate. Mookie pounced on the ball, and drilled it to straightaway center. It cleared the fence, and just like that, the Dodgers were ahead 1-0.
Kershaw sets the record in the fourth
Though he got a strikeout in each of the first two innings, things got a little dicey for Clayton in the third. He struck out Dustin Garneau swinging for the second out of the inning, which pulled him into a tie for the strikeout lead with Sutton. But then, he seemed to lose focus a bit on the mound. He fell behind Derek Hill, who then doubled. He walked Robbie Grossman on five pitches. He got Javier Baez into a 1-2 count, but surrendered an RBI single down the right field line. With the score now tied, and runners on base, setting the record was the last thing on his mind. He got fellow future Hall of Famer Miguel Cabrera to ground weakly back to the mound, and the inning was over. The record would have to wait until the fourth.
After the Dodgers went quietly in the bottom of the third, Kershaw was back on the mound, ready to make history. He got Austin Meadows to a two-strike count, but Meadows hit a pretty good pitch into center field for a single. Then, up came the Tigers’ top prospect, 22-year-old Spencer Torkelson, who was probably in second grade when Kershaw got his first K.
With the game tied and a man on, Kersh went right to work. He started Torkelson off with a perfectly placed slider for a called strike. Then, he threw a fastball that was a little too midde-middle for Clayton’s taste, probably, but Torkelson fouled it off for strike two. As they had a couple of times earlier, the crowd rose to its feet, well aware that history was one pitch away. And then, of course, Clayton threw that nasty slider that went out of the zone at the last second. Torkelson waved at the pitch, but he was overmatched. There it was. Strikeout #2,697.
Of course, the fans at Dodger Stadium responded with a hearty and sustained ovation, and Clayton had to circle the mound a couple of times before he could continue. He tipped his cap to acknowledge the cheers, and had to do it a second time before the fans would allow the game to continue. And just for good measure, Kershaw struck out two more in the inning, and headed for the dugout, having pitched out of trouble one more time in his glorious career. The crowd once again erupted in applause, and Kershaw once again lifted his cap to the fans who had shown him nothing but love since he was 20 years old.
Bullpen can’t get it done
Kershaw would pitch two more scoreless innings, and get one more strikeout to get his nightly total up to seven. His final line on this history making night: 6.0 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 7 K. However, the second he came out of the game, the usually awesome bullpen let the game slip away from the Dodgers. Evan Phillips was the main culprit in this one, surrendering three earned runs in the seventh. Reyes Moronta gave up a run of his own in the eighth, and that is where the score stayed for the rest of the game. Final score Tigers 5, Dodgers 1.
The Dodgers offense, with the exception of Mookie Betts, looked a little lethargic on Saturday, getting only four hits on the night. Credit to Tiger starter Beau Brieske. He didn’t get shaken after that leadoff homer. He dug in and went toe-to-toe with Clayton Kershaw, and that is no small feat on any night. He went five innings, only giving up that one run on three hits. Then, the Tiger bullpen was nearly perfect. The Dodgers had one nice scoring chance in the seventh when they had two on with one out, but Austin Barnes hit into an inning-ending double play, and they never really threatened after that. This means that the Dodger hitters have been pretty quiet against inferior opponents in three out of the last four games. Not great.
Tonight was about Kersh
Though he would be upset that the Dodgers would go on to lose the game, Kershaw was nevertheless pleased at his accomplishment. “Anytime you get to do something individual, record-wise, the people around you to help you celebrate are what matters the most,” said Kershaw whose wife Ellen and the rest of his family were cheering him on in the stands. “And then to see the fans care about it as much as they did. That was … all those things make it special.”
Cans of Corn…
- It was Kirk Gibson bobblehead night at the stadium. Gibby, now a Tiger broadcaster, didn’t make the trip west with the team, but did record a video message that was played on the scoreboard prior to the game.
- For the second straight night, Tiger manager AJ Hinch got some boos from the crowd when his name was announced cuz, well, you know…
- I’m still not completely sold on Evan Phillips as a high-leverage guy.
- Walker Buehler will try to get the series win on Sunday afternoon, 1:10 first pitch.
