dodgers will go on a good winning streak and some of their wins might even come against superior opponents unfortunately a lot of people forget that the dodgers nor clayton kershaw can beat the cardinals. There is no need to sweep superior opponents on the road every single time, all you can for in your team is for a chance. What are the dodgers going to do against jaime garcia and michael wacha in a 7 game series? Oh and in case you are wondering about Adam Wainright, yes he's coming back towards the end of the regular season in time for the playoffs. What do the other mlb teams do in the playoffs against a three headed monster?
http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/p...on-kershaw-to-deliver-a-signature-performance
It's time for Clayton Kershaw to deliver signature performance
It's ridiculous to call Clayton Kershaw a goat. The suggestion that he's a choker is an unimaginative and derisive means to describe a more complicated pattern of results. But buried within this is something clear and obvious: It's time for the best pitcher on the planet to deliver a pitching performance in the postseason worthy of the best pitcher on the planet. With each playoff defeat, with each start where the Dodgers' ace suddenly hits a wall in the seventh inning, the narrative becomes more and more legitimate: Clayton Kershaw can't win the big game.
Jerry Reuss was 2-8 in the postseason? Well, OK, but he didn't win three Cy Young Awards and his postseason ERA was 3.59, better than Kershaw's 4.99 postseason mark. C.J. Wilson is 1-6 with a 5.26 ERA? OK, he never struck out 300 batters in a season or had a regular-season ERA under 2.00. Aaron Sele? Let's not compare Aaron Sele to Kershaw.Kershaw has plenty of defenders. Those supporters will tell you the criticism is unfair, bounded in small sample size nitpicking, and they would still take him over any other starter with the season on the line, as it is tonight for the Los Angeles Dodgers at Citi Field against the Mets in their NLDS. Leaving out his 2008 and 2009 postseasons, when he was still a young pitcher developing his command, they'll point to his peripheral numbers in seven starts over the past three postseasons and maintain he's been the same dominant force as in the regular season:2013-2015 postseason: .215/.273/.335, 7.5 percent walk rate, 33.5 percent K rate, 2.3 percent HR rate2013-2015 regular season: .195/.238/.283, 4.9 percent walk rate, 30.3 percent K rate, 1.4 percent HR rateThat's pretty close, with small ticks upward across the board, but nothing you wouldn't expect facing better offenses in the postseason. In 42.1 postseason innings, he has allowed just 34 hits and struck out 58 batters. He's been tagged for just four home runs, hardly the total of a choker grooving fastballs down the middle. And yet: He's been touched for 25 runs in those 42.1 innings, a 4.68 ERA. In the regular season over the past three years, he pitched seven-plus innings in 74 percent of his starts; in his seven postseason starts, he's done it just once, in the first game of the 2013 NL Division Series against a strikeout-prone Braves club that was batting a rookie with a .291 OBP in the cleanup spot.<aside class="inline inline-photo full" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-family: BentonSans, -apple-system, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); clear: both; margin: 6px 0px 18px; padding: 0px 0px 15px; width: 570px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><figure style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; position: relative;"><source data-srcset="http://a4.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2015%2F1013%2Fr16703_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg&w=570, <a href=" http:="" a4.espncdn.com="" combiner="" i?img="%2Fphoto%2F2015%2F1013%2Fr16703_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg&w=1140"" target="_blank"><figcaption class="photoCaption" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; padding-top: 10px; position: relative;"><cite style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(153, 153, 153); font-style: normal; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap;"></cite></figcaption></figure></aside>Joe Sheehan, summing up what I've seen others write, took the opposite tack of the tweet above, writing today, "Kershaw isn't going to move the needle on my opinion of him one bit based on how he pitches tonight. With that said, I very much hope he drops a lot of zeroes, not because I hate the Mets -- I don't, honest! -- but because I don't want to listen to more of the 'Kershaw can't pitch when it counts' nonsense."And yet: one win in seven starts, a 4.68 postseason ERA from 2013 to '15, three consecutive seventh-inning meltdowns in his past three playoff starts. We're still waiting for that signature Kershaw performance that we have seen almost every time out from April through September. Only Kershaw himself can change the narrative. It reminds me a bit of Randy Johnson. The Hall of Famer won his first two postseason appearances but then endured a stretch of eight consecutive winless starts, going 0-7 with a 3.84 ERA. Couldn't win the big one, everybody said. Then he did, winning three games in the 2001 World Series.I think of this quote from the great Sandy Koufax, in a piece Mark Saxon <a href="http://espn.go.com/blog/losangeles/dodger-report/post/_/id/17305/the-season-of-big-games-has-arrived-for-clayton-kershaw" target="_blank">wrote on ESPN.com in September:"I don't know if he has any extra fire burning because I think he always has fire burning," Koufax said of Kershaw. "I think he's a great competitor. Will there be any extra? I hope not because extra might destroy you. You can only go so far. One hundred percent physical effort will kill you because there's no room for thinking. You can go to 99. But you have to leave some room for the brain."<article class="ad-300" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; clear: both; overflow: hidden; position: relative; z-index: 1000026; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; float: right; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></article>Is that it? Nobody questions Kershaw's mental toughness -- that's why the "choker" label is absurd -- but maybe that fire does burn too hot, as it may have for Johnson. Kershaw himself said, "I think being emotionless might be the best thing to do on the mound, but it's hard for me to contain it at times." Does he reach the seventh inning and run out of gas? That seemed to be the case in Game 1, when he walked three of the four hitters he faced that inning, leaving manager Don Mattingly with little choice but to pull his ace with the bases loaded.Maybe it's been just one or two misplaced pitches and some bad luck. How do you explain unlikely home runs from the likes of Matt Adams (three home runs all season versus left-handed pitchers) last year or <a href="http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/_/id/29200/daniel-murphy" target="_blank">Daniel Murphy (one home run versus lefties) the other night? But there's no room for bad luck or bad timing in the postseason. It's time for the best pitcher on the planet to get the job done.I think he'll do that tonight. I think the series will go back to L.A. for a deciding Game 5.But, man, that seventh inning is going to be interesting.
It's time for Clayton Kershaw to deliver signature performance
-
David Schoenfield, SweetSpot blogger
- Email
It's ridiculous to call Clayton Kershaw a goat. The suggestion that he's a choker is an unimaginative and derisive means to describe a more complicated pattern of results. But buried within this is something clear and obvious: It's time for the best pitcher on the planet to deliver a pitching performance in the postseason worthy of the best pitcher on the planet. With each playoff defeat, with each start where the Dodgers' ace suddenly hits a wall in the seventh inning, the narrative becomes more and more legitimate: Clayton Kershaw can't win the big game.
Jerry Reuss was 2-8 in the postseason? Well, OK, but he didn't win three Cy Young Awards and his postseason ERA was 3.59, better than Kershaw's 4.99 postseason mark. C.J. Wilson is 1-6 with a 5.26 ERA? OK, he never struck out 300 batters in a season or had a regular-season ERA under 2.00. Aaron Sele? Let's not compare Aaron Sele to Kershaw.Kershaw has plenty of defenders. Those supporters will tell you the criticism is unfair, bounded in small sample size nitpicking, and they would still take him over any other starter with the season on the line, as it is tonight for the Los Angeles Dodgers at Citi Field against the Mets in their NLDS. Leaving out his 2008 and 2009 postseasons, when he was still a young pitcher developing his command, they'll point to his peripheral numbers in seven starts over the past three postseasons and maintain he's been the same dominant force as in the regular season:2013-2015 postseason: .215/.273/.335, 7.5 percent walk rate, 33.5 percent K rate, 2.3 percent HR rate2013-2015 regular season: .195/.238/.283, 4.9 percent walk rate, 30.3 percent K rate, 1.4 percent HR rateThat's pretty close, with small ticks upward across the board, but nothing you wouldn't expect facing better offenses in the postseason. In 42.1 postseason innings, he has allowed just 34 hits and struck out 58 batters. He's been tagged for just four home runs, hardly the total of a choker grooving fastballs down the middle. And yet: He's been touched for 25 runs in those 42.1 innings, a 4.68 ERA. In the regular season over the past three years, he pitched seven-plus innings in 74 percent of his starts; in his seven postseason starts, he's done it just once, in the first game of the 2013 NL Division Series against a strikeout-prone Braves club that was batting a rookie with a .291 OBP in the cleanup spot.<aside class="inline inline-photo full" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-family: BentonSans, -apple-system, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); clear: both; margin: 6px 0px 18px; padding: 0px 0px 15px; width: 570px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><figure style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; position: relative;"><source data-srcset="http://a4.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2015%2F1013%2Fr16703_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg&w=570, <a href=" http:="" a4.espncdn.com="" combiner="" i?img="%2Fphoto%2F2015%2F1013%2Fr16703_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg&w=1140"" target="_blank"><figcaption class="photoCaption" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; padding-top: 10px; position: relative;"><cite style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(153, 153, 153); font-style: normal; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap;"></cite></figcaption></figure></aside>Joe Sheehan, summing up what I've seen others write, took the opposite tack of the tweet above, writing today, "Kershaw isn't going to move the needle on my opinion of him one bit based on how he pitches tonight. With that said, I very much hope he drops a lot of zeroes, not because I hate the Mets -- I don't, honest! -- but because I don't want to listen to more of the 'Kershaw can't pitch when it counts' nonsense."And yet: one win in seven starts, a 4.68 postseason ERA from 2013 to '15, three consecutive seventh-inning meltdowns in his past three playoff starts. We're still waiting for that signature Kershaw performance that we have seen almost every time out from April through September. Only Kershaw himself can change the narrative. It reminds me a bit of Randy Johnson. The Hall of Famer won his first two postseason appearances but then endured a stretch of eight consecutive winless starts, going 0-7 with a 3.84 ERA. Couldn't win the big one, everybody said. Then he did, winning three games in the 2001 World Series.I think of this quote from the great Sandy Koufax, in a piece Mark Saxon <a href="http://espn.go.com/blog/losangeles/dodger-report/post/_/id/17305/the-season-of-big-games-has-arrived-for-clayton-kershaw" target="_blank">wrote on ESPN.com in September:"I don't know if he has any extra fire burning because I think he always has fire burning," Koufax said of Kershaw. "I think he's a great competitor. Will there be any extra? I hope not because extra might destroy you. You can only go so far. One hundred percent physical effort will kill you because there's no room for thinking. You can go to 99. But you have to leave some room for the brain."<article class="ad-300" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; clear: both; overflow: hidden; position: relative; z-index: 1000026; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; float: right; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></article>Is that it? Nobody questions Kershaw's mental toughness -- that's why the "choker" label is absurd -- but maybe that fire does burn too hot, as it may have for Johnson. Kershaw himself said, "I think being emotionless might be the best thing to do on the mound, but it's hard for me to contain it at times." Does he reach the seventh inning and run out of gas? That seemed to be the case in Game 1, when he walked three of the four hitters he faced that inning, leaving manager Don Mattingly with little choice but to pull his ace with the bases loaded.Maybe it's been just one or two misplaced pitches and some bad luck. How do you explain unlikely home runs from the likes of Matt Adams (three home runs all season versus left-handed pitchers) last year or <a href="http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/_/id/29200/daniel-murphy" target="_blank">Daniel Murphy (one home run versus lefties) the other night? But there's no room for bad luck or bad timing in the postseason. It's time for the best pitcher on the planet to get the job done.I think he'll do that tonight. I think the series will go back to L.A. for a deciding Game 5.But, man, that seventh inning is going to be interesting.
ushups::anichamp4:toast::hidding:
