Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Clayton Kershaw entered today’s game with 20 consecutive scoreless innings, and after a complete game shutout victory over the Mets, that streak now sits at 29 innings. Amazingly, that still doesn’t live up to Zack Greinke‘s current streak, but it does speak to the duo’s ongoing ridiculous effectiveness in July.
Kershaw had everything working today for the Dodgers and against a depleted Mets lineup, it appeared like the stars were aligned. The Mets even helped by doing things like not bothering to challenge plays like this:
https://twitter.com/jasoncollette/status/624371761119936512
And by the fifth inning, everybody was thinking the same thing: perfect game. Understandably so, as Kershaw was dominating and the Mets didn’t even look like they were about to hit anything hard. Unfortunately, those perfecto dreams were dashed in the top of the seventh, when Curtis Granderson sat on an 0-2 slider and reached out to line a clean single to right, ending the bid and drawing an ovation from the home fans. That ovation for Kershaw turned to cheers for the Mets when Wilmer Flores singled to put the tying run in scoring position, but Kershaw managed to escape by striking out the next batter and then inducing a routine grounder. In the bottom of the eighth, Lucas Duda singled on another 0-2 pitch, which seemed to setup a rally … but he was then promptly picked off. The Mets went quietly into the night after that, wrapping up a 3-0 victory for the Dodgers.
Kershaw finished the game having allowed only three hits, all singles, striking out 11 and walking none. That means Kershaw has struck out 45 batters since the last time he issued a walk, and out of his 100 pitches on the night, he threw 75 strikes and only 25 balls.
Clayton Kershaw: 1st pitcher since 1900 w/ 3 straight starts allowing 0 runs, striking out 10+, walking none (Elias) pic.twitter.com/erZJq2OZZL
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) July 24, 2015
Yeah, he good.
https://twitter.com/BBTN/status/603234329754476544
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It’s fortunate that Kershaw was so dominant today, as the offense was generally impotent, piecing together a measly five hits against a previously struggling Bartolo Colon through five innings. The only extra-base hit and run during that time was a Jimmy Rollins solo homer in the bottom of the third.
Luckily in the ninth inning, the Dodgers got to face the Mets bullpen and they put together a couple of insurance runs. In the last frame alone, the Dodgers managed four baserunners and got two runs after Alberto Callaspo drew a bases loaded walk and Yasiel Puig hit a sacrifice fly to deep right.
Not pretty on the offensive end, but enough to win, which is always good enough for me.
