Dodgers 1, Reds 0: Clayton Kershaw has terrible start, throws shutout

The Dodgers beat the Reds tonight, 1-0, thanks to Clayton Kershaw being the greatest pitcher on the planet. Hell, he even had 20% of the Dodgers hits on the night (and would’ve had 33% if A.J. Ellis wasn’t the slowest human alive), just because he can.

The Dodgers are now back at .500, leveled off at 23-23, and are close to .500 at home at 11-12.

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Kershaw was on the mound for the Dodgers, so the story starts with him. Unfortunately, he had a terrible start, striking out only seven and HE WALKED ONE BATTER. As a result, his FIP for the start was 1.85 and his FIP for the season skyrocketed to 1.39. We’re gonna have to wait for the post-game interviews, but hopefully Kershaw explains himself.

Oh yeah, he threw a complete game shutout.

Dude has a 1.48 ERA and even that seems high at this point.

The Reds pitching staff came into today’s game last in the majors, allowing a 5.57 ERA, so of course Brandon Finnegan and his 4.44 ERA/5.45 FIP came out firing. While the Dodgers had runners in scoring position in the first, fourth, and fifth, Finnegan shutout the Dodgers through five frames.

In the sixth, though, the Dodgers finally had a breakthrough of sorts. After Justin Turner led off the inning with a walk and advanced to second on an attempted pick-off gone awry, Adrian Gonzalez destroyed a line drive between short and third with a vicious check-swing single to put runners at the corners with nobody out. Of course, because the Dodgers have been the Dodgers of late, they Dodger’d it up and Howie Kendrick grounded into a double play to score a run but also basically kill the rally.

The Dodgers still managed to strand a runner in scoring position to end the sixth anyway, and Finnegan ended up setting a career high in innings by going eight frames and only allowing one run thanks to the Dodgers hitting into four double plays. A lot of pitchers seem to be setting a career high in innings pitched in a start against the Dodgers recently.

Good sign or GREAT sign?

At least the game only took 131 minutes.

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The Dodgers play the Reds again tomorrow at 7:10 PM PST/10:10 PM EST. Mike Bolsinger will be on the mound for the Dodgers praying that they give him more than one run of support against Daniel Wright of the Reds making his major league debut which means he’s throwing a shutout.

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Oh yeah, Kershaw also did this thing for whatever reason.

https://twitter.com/ChadMoriyama/status/734949751766929408