If Wednesday's game is the last one Dodgers uniform for Clayton Kershaw“It won’t tarnish his legacy,” a teammate said. Mookie Betts.
“He’s going to have a statue, so we have to keep that in mind,” Betts said. “In the grand scheme of things, Kershaw is a first-ballot Hall of Famer, one of the best pitchers to ever do it.
“So if you let two innings ruin that, then you don’t understand baseball.”
But, as Betts admitted, Kershaw's appearance was a relief. Game 3 of the National League Division Series it was hard to watch. In those two innings, he gave up six hits, five runs, walked three and struck out no hitter, turning a tight game into defeat 8-2 for the Philadelphia Phillies, who prevented elimination and best of five series extended for Game 4 on Thursday.
“He just didn't have a good slider tonight,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Clayton threw a slider. He was working behind him, too. There was no command tonight.”
Clayton Kershaw leans during a tough eighth inning.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
Kershaw, who went 11-2 as a regular-season starter, was left out of the wild-card series lineup and had not pitched for nine days when he began warming up in the sixth inning on Wednesday. Throughout the year he did not have such a long break between performances.
“During this time, I did everything I could,” he said. “It took a long time, but, you know, I quit [off] as level ground as possible. He wasn't there tonight.”
This was evident from the first batter he faced. Kershaw, who walked a batter every 3.2 innings during the regular season, threw three straight balls to Tree Turner before giving up one. He gave up two more walks, one intentional, in the inning but avoided injury thanks to a poor call by the Phillies' Kyle Schwarber and a good catch by right fielder Teoscar Hernandez.
But with Tanner Scott unavailable due to personal reasons and Alex Vecia already pitching twice in the series, Roberts had few other good options against the Phillies' heavy-hitting lefty. So he sent Kershaw out for the eighth game, and that's when things really got out of hand.
JT Realmuto started the inning and hit Kershaw's second pitch, a slider, over the wall in left-center. The Phillies sent eight more men to the plate in the inning, scoring four more times, with two of those runs coming on Schwarber's second homer of the night.
Kershaw struck out first pitches to only four of the 14 batters he faced and missed the zone on 26 of the 48 pitches he threw overall. That won't stop the Dodgers from building him a statue when he retires this fall, but it also won't get him any closer to a second straight World Series ring.
“I didn't throw any punches and it's hard to stay behind in the count,” he said.
Kershaw said he felt good physically, but added: “I just wasn’t finding it.”
That wasn't a problem for Philadelphia's top team, which didn't have much success in the first two games of the series. The Phillies' first four hitters – Turner, Schwarber, Bryce Harper and Alex Bohm – combined for just three hits, all singles, in 27 at-bats, striking out 12 times. They matched that hit total with Dodger starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto over 11 pitches in the fourth inning Wednesday, with Schwarber homering from the roof of the right-field pavilion and Harper and Bohm following him with singles.
They finished the night nine for 16 with five runs scored and five RBIs, with Schwarber's two homers traveling a total of 863 feet.
“We just had a little quick meeting. Nothing crazy, just focus on the game and win today,” Turner said. “We all know that in the first two games we pressed as a group and really wanted to win.”
If Turner and the Phillies win again on Thursday, the series will return to Philadelphia and bustling Citizens Bank Park, where the Phillies have posted the best home record in baseball, for a decisive Game 5 on Saturday. If the Dodgers win, they will advance to the National League Championship Series, where Kershaw could have a chance to retire on a better note than the clunker he played with on Wednesday.
“That's the great thing about baseball,” he said. “Every day you get a new game.”
