The absolute best thing about the Giants losing
was that I won’t have to listen to whiny Dodger fans explain how lucky the Giants are over and over to justify how they and the Cardinals have pretty much owned National League 21st century baseball.
How lucky have the Giants and Cardinals been in the 21st century?
Three World Championships for the Giants, Two World Championships for the Cardinals
Four World Series appearances for the Giants, Four World Series appearances for the Cardinals
If anyone has ruined postseason baseball more for me it has been the Giants. Not because they have won their Championships, and the Dodgers have not, but because the whole “the postseason is a crapshoot” has become such a common comment now to explain away the success of teams in the postseason. Winners never use that comment only losers.
It is such a cop out.
I enjoy the Dodgers beating the Giants when it means something. I guess the rivalry simply isn’t as strong with me because in my formative baseball years the Reds/Houston/Braves were the teams we had to beat. Rarely was it the Giants.
Maybe it is the internet, or maybe it is the success of the Giants, but the hatred Dodger fans feel for the Giants these days seems all out of proportion. The success of the Giants has only affected me in one way. I can no longer win friendly arguments with Giant fans by talking about our World Championships because they now have not one, not two, but three. That is annoying. But that is about it.
I’d rather spend my time worrying about my team’s success then what my rival is doing. Most of all I wanted to play the Giants in the postseason a la the Red Sox / Yankee postseason rivalry that has sprung up since Wild Card play was introduced.
A good many Dodger fans who hate the Giants expressed their fear of facing them in the postseason. I have a name for those fans.
Murphy drives in four
but Dodgers still manage to eek out a one-run victory to send both teams back to the Nations Capital for the deciding game five on Thursday night.
On Monday the Dodgers held Murphy in check and lost handily 8 – 3, on Tuesday Murphy, drove in four of the Nationals five runs and yet the Dodgers won 6-5. Go figure.
This was a stomach twister of a game. It started off well enough when I witnessed the best edition of the National Anthem I’ve ever heard. Just to make sure I wasn’t out to lunch on this assessment I asked my friend Joe and his group what they thought of the anthem. They replied “best they ever heard” without any input from me.
Since I was firmly in the start Kershaw camp I was hoping he’d show why he was the right choice. Then Turner singled and I knew he’d score, he’s just that good at finding the plate once he’s on base. During the regular season Turner got on base 119 times and scored 53, and that was the team missing their best hitter for two weeks and Harper in a slump most of that time. And sure enough, Danny Murphy brought him home.
Adrian Gonzalez revved back up the smallish postseason crowd with a two-run jack and once again the Dodgers had scored in the 1st inning. Inexplicably Cory Seager did not figure in the scoring it was Justin Turner on base after getting hit by Ross.
The Turner / Murphy combo would strike again in the 3rd and the Dodgers were tied 2-2, and worse, Kershaw was at 52 pitches and was seemingly struggling as he did on Friday.
The game turned on a Kershaw double down the left field line. Chase would fail once again just as he had failed this whole series. Seager continued his struggles after the 1st inning making the second out. With two out and Kershaw still standing at second, Justin Turner lofted a fly ball into left-center field, I thought for sure the speedy Turner would get to it, but he didn’t and as the ball dropped between Turner and Werth, Kershaw cantered home with the go-ahead run. That seemed to rattle Ross who then walked Adrian and Reddick to load the bases. Joc was hit by a pitch and the Dodgers had a 4 – 2 lead and had knocked Ross from the game. Grandal left the bases loaded again, possibly a record in a short five-game series.
The baserunning or scoring seemed to re-energize Kershaw who pitched the 4th-5th-6th like the Kershaw we all knew. Pitch count was no longer a factor, he had gone six in 80 plus pitches. Joc Pederson had hit an opposite field double to give the Dodgers a 5 – 2 lead in the bottom of the fifth so headed into the seventh all seemed going according to plan.
Kershaw headed out to start the 7th, and I’ll to admit I was shocked to read all the Dodger bloggers and beat writers tweeting about how surprised they were. Really? He had been mowing down the Nationals, hadn’t yet thrown 85 pitches, the bullpen was exhausted, seemed like a no-brainer to put Kershaw back out.
Kershaw had handled Espinosa easily the whole series but he started the 7th off with single to left field but I wasn’t worried. He struck out Severino for his 11th strikeout. The whiny Chris Heisey flew out to leftfield. Two out, one on, but now Turner was up and he had hit the ball hard twice off of Clayton. I saw Harper on deck. The last thing I wanted to see was Harper as the tying run. Turner hit a ball to the left of Seager who made a nice play to get to it but had trouble getting the ball to second and Espinosa beat the force. Now I was worried. Dave Roberts went to the mound but it was brief and he was going to let Kershaw face Harper.
2014 MVP facing 2015 MVP. This was Kershaw in his ill-fated postseason 7th inning facing the reigning MVP who had struggled most of Sept. One of them could change the dialog, but instead of something to write about, Harper simply walked, and the bases were loaded for Jayson Werth. That was it for Clayton, he left with having pitched a solid game, but once again was unable to close that 7th. A better shortstop makes the play on Turner and he never has to face Harper. On three days rest, he had given the Dodgers exactly what they needed, vindicated the choice by the front office, and the ovation as he left was the Dodger fans saying thank you.
Pedro Baez came in to face Werth and promptly hit him. This was a double killer, it left the bases loaded, moved the Nationals to within 5-3, and brought up Dodger postseason killer, Danny Murphy. Murphy did not disappoint, driving a two-run single into CF against Avilan and tying up the game. After all the hard work by Kershaw and the offense the game was tied 5 – 5. Dave went to Joe Blanton, and with the game on the line, Joe Blanton did what he’s done all year. He came through and struck out Rendon on three pitches.
Dodgers went meekly in the 7th but not without some controversy. Puig was called out on a questionable check swing call. My vantage point was horrible but it didn’t look like he had even come close to swinging. Video supported that, it was as Donald Trump would say “the worst call in the history of baseball, simply the worst”. I felt for sure that Puig would get tossed but somehow he managed to stay in the game and trotted out to RF for the top of the 8th. Joe Blanton would set the Nationals down in order. Have I said how amazing Joe Blanton is? Well, he is. Simply amazing.
Bottom of the 8th looks much like the 7th. Joc strikes out, Grandal grounds out. Two out no one on and Treinen hits Toles. Speed is on the bases. Andre comes up to pinch hit and drives a single into left field. Two on, two out but Chase Utley is up and up to this point Chase has been horrible. Not just this game with his three outs, two by strikeouts, but the whole series his bat and glove have been MIA. The count goes 1 – 2 and it seems inevitable that Chase will leave these runners.
Hah
Chase drives a shot past the lunging Murphy into RCF and Toles scampers home with the go-ahead run. The Ravine explodes.
Time for Jansen redemption and he blows through the Nationals first two hitters, striking out Drew and Turner. That brings up the 2015 MVP again. On a two and two count, he hits a dribbler to 2nd that Chase flies in on and nips Harper at 1st.
Game over.
Sure glad I didn’t stay home for this game.
The announced attendance for the game was 49, 617. That was 5,000 below any NLDS game at Dodger Stadium last year. You can blame the game times but the reality is that the Dodgers normally sell out the retail side of the tickets for any postseason game. They did not, and the empty Reserved sections were a glaring reminder of the price the Dodgers are paying for not figuring out their TV problem.
David Ross shoves Bob Boone aside
Driving home from the exhilarating Dodger game I had a hard time finding the Cub/Giant game but finally zeroed in on .830 on the AM dial to hear Dan Schulman and Aaron Boone. A few minutes later Ex-Dodger David Ross slugged a home run and the only thing notable about it was that it had tied the game.
An inning or two passed when Dan Schulman with much glee in his voice announced that the home run by David Ross made him the oldest catcher to ever hit a home run in the postseason. He let that sink in and then announced that the previous record holder had been Aaron’s dad, Bob Boone.
If you don’t know, the Boone baseball family had a heck of a run in the major leagues from Ray Boone (1948 – 1960) to Bob Boone (1972 – 1990) to Aaron Boone (1997 – 2009) with PED poster child Brett Boone thrown in (1992 – 2005).
It was amusing to me. Much more amusing than the 2004 Aug/Sept that David Ross put up for the Dodgers after Paul Depodesta handed him the starting catching gig by trading Paul LoDuca. That 2004 season was the worst of his career until 2015. Twelve years ago it would have been hard to imagine that David Ross would still be catching in the major leagues much less starting in October for the best team in baseball.
Much more amusing than the 2004 Aug/Sept that David Ross put up for the Dodgers after Paul Depodesta handed him the starting catching gig by trading Paul LoDuca. That 2004 season was the worst of his career until 2015. Twelve years ago it would have been hard to imagine that David Ross would still be catching in the major leagues much less starting in October for the best team in baseball but David Ross might be the best backup catcher of the 21st century. Only one time in fifteen major league seasons has Ross caught more than 100 games.
Only one time in fifteen major league seasons has Ross caught more than 100 games but he has always caught at least 36. Maybe Gregg Zaun holds the title though the mark against Zaun was that he caught 133 games in 2005, and over 100 games four times so I quibble in that I don’t think he was only a backup catcher as David Ross has been.
The decision awaits
Dodger fans had to wait until almost midnight to find out when the Dodgers would be playing today but that decision was based on a specific outcome.
The Dodger front office has a bigger decision to make as they consider multiple variables and ramifications. They have a 20 team analyst staff, numbers will be crunched, but this might be a gut call.
If Dave Roberts has the biggest vote this will be his biggest decision of the year unless they get to play on Thursday.
Start Kershaw on three days rest after he struggled considerably in game one and seemed to have given maximum effort in his five innings.
or
Start Julio Urias in an elimination game.
The bullpen has to be a big part of the consideration as they play their 3rd game in a row. The front office is backed into a corner with the inability of Kenta Maeda to go more than three innings, and Rich Hill only getting 13 outs on Sunday. The key players in the bullpen will probably need to pitch for the 3rd game in a row just to get to Kenley Jansen who didn’t inspire confidence with his performance yesterday.
The Pros of starting Kershaw:
- He’s Clayton Kershaw, and until his start on Friday still looked very much like the Clayton Kershaw before his DL spell.
- Kershaw gives the team the best chance to win today
- Kershaw gives the team the best chance for some length, you know he will at least go five, he could go six, and seven could be on the table
The Cons on starting Kershaw:
- If you use Kershaw today, you won’t have a fully rested Kershaw to face Scherzer on Thursday.
- Do you waste Kershaw on a day when the Dodgers have their best chance to bring their bats into play
The Pros of starting Urias:
- You save Kershaw for Scherzer
- He’s been solid since his debut, he might be ready for this big moment in the spotlight and give the Dodgers five good innings on a day the Dodgers might bring their bats into play
The Cons on starting Urias
- His max would be five innings, and a decent % chance he can’t even do that.
- Urias has shown some impressive composure for someone his age, asking him to save the Dodger season might be asking too much of him and his young arm
- The Dodgers have taken care of his arm all year. Do you change all that for one game? He has thrown only 13 innings in Sept, do you ask someone who hasn’t pitched five innings since Sept 5th to pitch five innings? I guess he wouldn’t be on the postseason roster as the 4th starter option unless the answer was Yes.
- Nationals could make his inning limit a moot point by knocking him out just as they did Hill and Maeda, and almost Kershaw.
I’m tenuously going with Kershaw, give your team the best chance to win today, and worry about tomorrow on Thursday.
I’d be shocked if the Dodgers don’t go that route, but it will be exciting if they try the kid and give themselves the best chance for Thursday.
Dodgers shut down Murphy
and that was about all they did right on Monday, losing to the Nationals 8 – 3 leaving them having to play must win baseball on Tuesday.
On the pitching side, things went wrong from beginning to end. Starter Kenta Maeda made it three straight poor starts by the Dodgers, and Kenley Jansen had what was arguably his worst major league inning.
On the scoring side for the Dodgers, it was Corey Seager once again getting the Dodgers off to a fast start by slamming a double off the RCF wall to plate Turner for the 1st run of the game. That would be the highlight of the Dodger offense until Carlos Ruiz blasted a two-run pinch-hit home run in the 5th to bring the Dodger to within one run at 4 – 3. That would be the last time the Dodgers scored. The score stayed that way until Kenley Jansen entered the game in the 9th inning.
On the pitching side, Kenta continued his poor pitching of late giving up four runs in only three innings. Kenta gave up five hits and two walks and seemed to be getting squeezed by plate umpire, Ron Kulpa. With no margin of error, the Nationals hit his strikes and Roberts was forced to bring in the bullpen in the fourth. Once again they proved to be the best part of the pitching staff this series shutting down the Nationals from the 4th to the 8th.
Everyone contributed except Kenley Jansen and Ross Stripling. Pedro Baez, Grant Dayton, Josh Fields, Luis Avilan, and Joe Blanton put up zeros before Roberts had to turn to Kenley Jansen because he had no one left but Stripling. With the score 4 – 3 Jansen watched Jayson Werth hit a home run about as hard as a home run can be hit. Still, it was just 5 -3 but it would get much worse. Murphy walked and Harper’s jersey was grazed to make it 1st and 2nd. Rendon would pop up, but Zimmerman hit a deep fly ball that Josh Reddick couldn’t handle as the ball hit the wall below his glove bringing in both runs as Zimmerman cruised into 3rd base.
To make matters worse, Josh Reddick had been brought in as defensive replacement because Toles had pinch hit for Puig in the bottom of the 8th. Roberts has decded that Puig can no longer be allowed to face right hand pitchers. This move blew up in his face as Toles made an out anyway and Reddick butchered the ball that Puig would certainly have caught, as most right fielders would have caught. Hell, Matt Kemp might have even caught that ball.
Ross Stripling replaced Jansen and Roberts had emptied his bullpen. Ross got his outs and the Dodgers went meekly in the 9th setting up game four tomorrow.
When the Dodgers were winning with a five-inning rotation it was because the rotation was at least giving the team a fighting chance. The starters have given up 3 runs, 4 runs, and 4 runs before the bullpen has come to the rescue in the 6th, 5th, and 4th inning.
You can’t win a postseason series that way.
Dodgers can’t score, Hill can’t finish
The story after three innings was Rich Hill setting a bizarre Dodger record. Hill recorded seven strikeouts in his first three innings something no other Dodger had ever done. The twitter and blogging world were agog with his success but it seemed that maybe they hadn’t noticed that Hill needed a Houdini double play to even get out of the 2nd inning unscathed.
I put my worry into words:
all this is great but will be a moot point if he doesn’t go five with the lead.
by meercatjohn on Oct 9, 2016 | 11:35 AM
And sure enough in the 4th inning after multiple beautiful curves, he hung one to the worst hitter in the National lineup, and Lobaton proved that even the worse hitter can hit a hanging curveball a long long way.
Hill would not even go five innings and left with the team behind 4 – 2. Eventually, the Nationals would score once more against the bullpen and win the game 5 – 2
The Dodgers had plenty of chances against Roark but simply couldn’t get the big hit they needed. Cory Seager started the offense off on the right foot once again slugging his 2nd home run of the series to get the Dodgers up 1 – 0. Better yet, Seager did it after Roark had fired a fastball over his head.
The Dodgers would get their second run on a single by Reddick to drive in Turner. Turner should have been out if the catcher had held onto the wrong side throw by Harper. At that point, Lobaton was wearing the goat ears.
Lobaton had hit into a double play that didn’t seem possible back in the 2nd inning. With the bases loaded he hit a ground ball back to Hill. Hill bobbled the ground ball and then threw the ball underhand to Grandal to get the force at home. To the amazement of everyone, Grandal fired to first and still got Lobaton at 1st place for the double play. That might have been the slowest moving major leaguer I’d ever seen, but at least he had a reason given he was playing on a bum ankle. When Lobaton dropped the throw from Harper that was two strikes against him.
But they couldn’t get the third strike and when Lobaton had deposited the ball into left field it was quite a ride from the basement to the penthouse.
Squandered opportunities abounded early:
- The Dodgers loaded the bases in the 2nd but had Rich Hill coming up. He made his predictable out, and Chase made the 3rd.
- The Dodgers loaded the bases in the 3rd with only one out and one run in. They were up 2 – 0 at that point and anything might have driven the nail in the coffin. Anything but a DP. Grandal hit into a DP.
- The Dodgers loaded the bases in the 5th with only one out. This time, Grandal did not hit into a double play, he struck out. Howie Kendrick pinch hit for Toles and worked the count full and struck a line drive, but it was right at Werth.
I’m not a fan of pinch-hitting for starting players in the fifth inning. The Dodgers started these guys for a reason and even though the Nationals have three left-handers in the bullpen the two best bullpen pieces are right handed.
Craig Minami suggested the Dodgers would be ill advised to knock out Roark early since the Nationals do have those three left-handers.
Craig was right, until the Dodgers can do something/anything against a left-hand pitcher they can’t aspire to go very deep in a postseason run.
How important was winning game one?
According to the Dodgers pre=game notes for game two, pretty damn important.
In Dodger postseason history, the club is 6-0 in series when winning Game 1 of a best-of-five set, advancing in the 1974 NLCS vs. Pittsburgh, 1978 NLCS vs. Philadelphia, 1981 NLCS vs. Montreal, 2008 NLDS vs. Chicago, 2009 NLDS vs. St. Louis and 2013 NLDS vs. Atlanta.
More from the Dodger pre-game notes:
YOUNG GUNS: The Dodgers are carrying seven rookies on their NLDS roster: Austin Barnes, Grant Dayton, Kenta Maeda, Corey Seager, Ross Stripling, Andrew Toles and Julio Urías. Were all seven to appear in the series, it would tie a franchise record for rookies used in a postseason series along with the 1953 World Series (Belardi, Gilliam, Hughes, Milliken, Podres, Thompson, Williams) and the 2006 NLDS (Billingsley, Broxton, Ethier, Kuo, Loney, Martin, Saito). The MLB record for most rookies used in a postseason series is 10, set by the 2013 St. Louis Cardinals (Source: Stats, LLC). In addition to Barnes, Dayton, Maeda, Stripling, Toles and Urías, Charlie Culberson will also be making the first postseason appearance of his career.
As postseason games go, this game had soul
I’ve been reviewing postseason box scores looking for historical games to write about, and I’ll have to admit if I saw this box score twenty years from now, it would not strike me as a particularly interesting game. That is the problem with box scores of games you never saw, they don’t really tell the story of the game, just the numbers.
I don’t usually do game reviews because 100 other Dodger bloggers will be doing one, but I do want to do them for games I want to remember, and this game I want to remember.
This game had soul.
The game started with a bang, as Corey Seager hit a bomb to CF on the first pitch from Max Scherzer. That home run was the youngest home run ever hit in Dodger postseason history, so it was only fitting it was hit by Corey Seager. No one has a better story than Andrew Toles and no Dodger fan should have been surprised when Toles slammed a single to CF to start the 3rd. Kershaw bunted him to second, and Chase Utley brought him home with a single to RF. One out later, Justin Turner hit a towering fly ball to left field that Jayson Werth was unable to bring back and as it landed beyond his reach, the Dodgers had a 4 -0 against the best right-hander in the NL.
That was the easy part.
Clayton Kershaw was doing everything possible to keep the lead the Dodgers handed him with those four surprising runs against Max Scherzer. Clayton clearly was groping for success and when it eluded him, he relied on pure grit and Danny Espinosa (3 K’s, 6 runners LOB). It was a Clayton Kershaw, Dodger fans have rarely witnessed because his normal brilliance allows him to sail through most games. In this game, he was in trouble every inning after the 1st, and while he gave up three runs in only five innings, it was astonishing he was able to do that well. Kershaw met the modest goal I had set forth for him, leave the game with the lead or tied.
By the time Kershaw was gone after five innings the Dodgers had a precarious 4 – 3 lead, and it would be up to the bullpen to save the game. This game was reminiscent of the games that his replacements pitched while he was on the DL. Time after time the bullpen would need to save a game where the starter could only get fifteen outs. With all that practice it was no surprise they were able to save this one. It would take a cast of characters from Joe Blanton pitching in the 6th instead of the 8th, Grant Dayton pitching in his 1st postseason game, Pedro Baez getting three key outs, and Kenley Jansen asked to get a five-out save. With Dodger fans hearts in their hands, they watched the bullpen get out after out until finally there were no more outs to get.
Just as the season was the season of the rookies, the game was the same way. Corey Seager started the offense off with a home run. Andrew Toles started the 3rd off with a single and would later score. Grant Dayton was asked to face Bryce Harper in his first postseason appearance and got the job done.
They were some key moments.
- The ball four that Heisey swung at for strike two with a 3 – 1 count. It was a high fastball that exploded past Heisey. If he takes the pitch the Nationals have two on and two out. Instead, Jansen threw his best pitch to strike out Heisey, an unhittable pitch at the knees.
- In the bottom of the 6th, Dayton struck out Harper to end the 6th with Turner on base. Dayton starts the 7th by striking out Werth but walks Murphy. Dayton was replaced with Baez, and Charlie Culberson replaced Chase Utley. That might have been the move of the night because Murphy tried to steal and was thrown out by Grandal. What the box score will not show is that Charlie Culberson made a brilliant tag by taking the one-hop throw and still made the tag with a smooth transition from catch to tag. I’m not sure Chase makes that play. Instead of a runner at 2nd with one out, they had two outs, and Rendon made the 3rd out.
- Luckily the Nat lineup is not long and Kershaw was able to use Espinosa as his out guy. In the 2nd Espinosa struck out with runners on 1st and 2nd and one out. In the 3rd Espinosa struck out with runners on 1st and 2nd with two outs. In the fifth with Kershaw hanging on by a thread, he strikes out Espinosa for the 3rd time for the final out with Werth on 3rd base.
This was a nerve-wracking start to the postseason and reminded me of games long ago in 1981 and 1988 as the team had to win close game after close game before they got to the World Series.
I consider that a good sign.
Three years ago today Juan Uribe lit up LA
The Dodgers have had several notable games on October 7th, but maybe none more memorable than the Juan Uribe game on 10/7/2013.
Eric Stephen had all the special moments.
Craig Minami and I were seated in the Loge down the left field line so we got a great view of that majestic home run. I feel this game is one of the top five games I’ve attended because of the magnitude and excitement. This game was known for several things:
- In the bottom of the 8th, the Braves best pitcher was left standing in the bullpen with his hands on his hips when Uribe hit the home run instead of being called upon to pitch to Uribe. Probably because they expected Uribe to bunt.
- Uribe tried to bunt first but failed, and then hit the home run that put the Dodgers into the NLCS.
- Clayton Kershaw basically shut out the Braves for six innings but left the game tied 2 – 2 because of an error by Adrian Gonzalez so both runs were unearned. On 10/7/2013 and 10/12/2013 Kershaw gave up zero earned runs in both starts. Those are the only starts of his postseason career where he has not given up an earned run.
- Carl Crawford hit two home runs in first two at-bats. That would be all the scoring the Dodgers would get until Uribe hit his two-run home run with Puig on base after Puig had hit a leadoff double(so much for the Puig can’t hit in the postseason)
Vin Scully had this famous comment:
“Isn’t it amazing what somebody can do when he can’t bunt,” Scully said.
Juan Uribe had one of those strange Dodger careers. When he was signed as a free agent I was not happy about the signing and wrote about my unhappiness with the acquisition. A year later it looked like I had been right as rain, as Uribe was horrible his first year with the Dodgers. In his 2nd year he was still horrible but for some reason, I had started to like him. His smile, his defense, his optimism even though his career looked over. Many thought or hoped Uribe would get released over the winter as Luis Cruz was now the incumbent 3rd baseman. Ned stayed with Uribe and that proved to be a prudent move by Ned as Cruz had his bubble pop from the get go, and luckily for the Dodgers, Juan Uribe was there to bail out the horrible decision to start the season with Luis Cruz as their starting 3rd baseman. Ned was rewarded with a huge comeback season from Uribe in 2013. Uribe did everything in 2013, he hit for power, he hit in the clutch, he played brilliant defense, and he seemed to click with a newcomer named Yasiel Puig. By the time the season had ended, for many Dodger fans, Juan Uribe had inexplicably become a huge fan favorite.
His home run on Oct 7th, 2013 was the icing on the cake.
The Dodgers would fail to carry the magic of the NLDS over into the NLCS. Probably because they weren’t playing the Braves anymore and because the Cardinals put the red-hot Hanley Ramirez out of commission by breaking his rib in his very first at-bat.
Can Kershaw do his part?
By asking that question, what I mean is, can Clayton keep his team tied or better by the time he’s lifted by Dave Roberts? Max Scherzer will be a stern test, it could very well be much like Wednesday’s game when Thor/Bumgarner threw zeroes at each other. The difference in the game was that Thor was done after seven and Bumgarner was not.
Andy McCullough offers up a thoughtful piece on Clayton Kershaw. It is a great read from beginning to end but the final paragraph is what caught me eye.
“Nobody talks about the success I’ve had in the postseason,” Kershaw said. “That’s fine. Ultimately, what it comes down to is if we win the World Series, everybody will stop saying everything, good or bad. That mindset is what I have to think about.”
I think the reason is simple.
No one talks about the regular season success of Madison Bumgarner because of Clayton Kershaw and the postseason bar that Bumgarner has created. No one talks about the postseason success of Clayton Kershaw because of Madison Bumgarner, and because of the bar that Kershaw has created with his regular season success. Each on their own could stand proud, but when compared to what each other has done respectively those accomplishments pale.
During the regular season, Kershaw has been the best pitcher in baseball for five years running. His cumulative fWAR is 41 which is 15 points above his closest NL competitor Johnny Cueto. That is a ridiculous number, so ridiculous that Clayton Kershaw can lay claim to being the greatest pitcher of the 21st century without too much of an argument.
Bumgarner has been the fifth best NL pitcher in this same time frame within five points of Cueto. Still, many find it hard to acknowledge he’s been one of the best regular season pitchers during the Kershaw run.
On the flip side Bumgarner has been the best postseason pitcher since 2010. How he stands among the greatest postseason pitchers is still a matter of debate, but his 2014 run was a postseason run for the ages. It is hard to compare what pitchers did who only had to pitch in the World Series compared to pitchers who have to make a Wild Card, Division Series, Championship Series, and World Series run.
Kershaw has zero World Series starts. He’s had one good NLCS start, his two worst starts occurred in the NLCS. His two best games were in the NLDS. Sure, Clayton has had some nice games in those ten starts, but he hasn’t won a deciding game yet though he should get credit for the Uribe deciding game four victory over the Braves. Unfortunately for Kershaw, he has had to face the Cardinals more than the Braves.
For me, I simply expect the best pitcher in baseball to out pitch his opponent or break even at least 75% of the time, not 40%. None of his ten postseason starts rank among the top 250 games ever pitched in the postseason. His best postseason game ranks 20th among LAD pitchers. Going game by game he led two times when he left, was behind six times when he left, and the score was tied twice when he left. If Kershaw isn’t leaving the game in the 7th inning at least tied, I don’t think he did his job even if that requires throwing zeroes.
I have high expectations but that is only because I’ve seen elite performances from LAD pitchers time and time again. Don Sutton pitched his team into the World Series in a playoff format. Fernando pitched his team into the World Series in a playoff format. Orel pitched his team into the World Series in a playoff format. Tommy John pitched his team into the World Series in a playoff format. You simply have to pitch better than your opponent. They all did that. Clayton did it last year in his last postseason start and everyone was happy. And if he had done that in his first NLDS start last year it would have meant the team was moving on. But he didn’t and they didn’t, because Greinke couldn’t do his part.
Are my expectations too high? I don’t think so, not for the best pitcher of the 21st century in his prime. I expect greatness from greatness, I don’t understand why everyone doesn’t.
Jon Weisman has his own opinion.
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 