Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Clayton Kershaw pitched a complete game gem to lead the Dodgers to a 2-1 win and a sweep of the rival Giants. The Dodgers are now up in the division by a relatively comfortable margin of 6.5 games with less than a month to go.
Kershaw struck out 15 over 132 pitches in his dominant effort. He allowed just six hits and a walk, along with a rather unfortunate run that was bordering on unearned. The run was a rather odd one, as it came after an overturned pick-off of Kelby Tomlinson, and then Justin Turner decided to Roger Dorn a grounder for a “hit” into left that tied the game at 1-1 in the sixth.
No matter, as Kershaw’s ERA is now down to 2.18, presumably because he really doesn’t want to be outdone by Zack Greinke.
Kershaw induced 35 swinging strikes tonight, which SHATTERS the previous pitch fx era (2008-present) record of 30, which Kershaw co-held.
— Daniel Brim (@DanielBrim) September 3, 2015
Since the All-Star break, Kershaw is 6-0 with a 1.01 earned-run average. In 71 innings, he has walked seven and struck out 91.
— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) September 3, 2015
All of that is decent.
As for the offense, the Dodgers didn’t do much on that front again despite the win. The unit totaled just six hits on the night and actually continues to struggle a bit despite the much improved results.
Fortunately, two of those hits were for extra bases and they made the difference. A Carl Crawford double in the second drove in Turner from first after Angel Pagan had trouble handling it to take an early 1-0 lead. After the Giants tied the game in the top of the frame, Chase Utley came through with a homer to right-center in the bottom of the sixth to put the Dodgers up for good.
Most importantly, Turner did this.
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Bonus: A bunch of people got super upset that I pointed this out…
https://twitter.com/ChadMoriyama/status/639283954177052672
…which is fitting, since I would never ever criticize the Dodgers media. Ever.
