Kershaw CCXLIX: Kershaw-ish
Chase Utley, 2B
Corey Seager, SS
Justin Turner, 3B
Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
Yasiel Puig, RF
Howie Kendrick, LF
Joc Pederson, CF
Carl Crawford, DH
(Clayton Kershaw, P)
By Jon Weisman
The Dodgers are 1-2 to start interleague play, 2-8 in their past 10 games and 14-15 on the season.
Enter Clayton Kershaw.
Today, Kershaw appears in his 100th game since the beginning of the 2013 season, a run that began with his Opening Day shutout (and eighth-inning, tiebreaking home run) against the Giants.
In 713 innings over his past 99 games, Kershaw has a 1.92 ERA with 826 strikeouts. This is what his average start in that time looks like: 7 1/3 innings, five hits, 1.7 runs (1.5 earned), 1.3 walks, 8.3 strikeouts.
During this period, Kershaw ranks No. 1 among all big-leaguers in innings, strikeouts, complete games (14), shutouts (eight), FIP (2.06), opponents’ on-base percentage (.236), opponents’ slugging percentage (.282), opponents’ OPS (.518), opponents OPS+ (49) and strikeout-walk ratio (6.45).
Today, Kershaw faces the Blue Jays, one of four MLB teams that he has never pitched against in his career (Baltimore, Boston and Toronto are the others). In 25 interleague starts, Kershaw has a 2.32 ERA and 0.95 WHIP with 182 strikeouts in 170 1/3 innings.
This is the first time Kershaw has pitched in an American League East park. He has pitched three previous games against AL East teams, all at Dodger Stadium, holding the Yankees to two runs in seven innings in 2010 and shutting them out over eight innings in 2013, then stopping the Rays on one earned run in eight innings 11 days later.
oldbrooklynfan
Let’s hope we don’t have to depend on Kershaw to take care of both the pitching and the offense. I’m interested in seeing how the Dodgers do against a knucleballer in Dickey and this old Met’s (Thole) battery.