Clayton Kershaw Excellent For Los Angeles Dodgers In World Series Game 1 Against Tampa Bay Rays

We’re all more than aware of Clayton Kershaw’s career postseason struggles compared to his sparkling regular season history. Going into his Game 1 World Series start for the Los Angeles Dodgers against the Tampa Bay Rays in Arlington, Texas, Kershaw’s pedestrian 11-12 career playoff record and 4.31 ERA is nearly two full runs worse than his 2.43 career ERA and unheard of 175-76 record.

His career 5.40 World Series ERA in five prior starts and his October struggles follow Kershaw 12 months a year every year, and will until the future Hall Of Fame lefty exorcises his playoff demons. It didn’t matter that the 32-year-old winner of three Cy Young Awards, one MVP and five league ERA titles had a 3.32 ERA and a 2-1 mark with 23 strikeouts in 19 innings. It was all about the here and the now, the World Series. Another chance to help bring Los Angeles its first championship since Kershaw’s birth year of 1988.

In Arlington, 23 miles from his high school in the Dallas suburbs, Kershaw was tremendous. He allowed just one solo homer over six innings, striking out eight, giving up two total hits and a walk, setting the Dodgers up for a Game 1 blowout win.

It was a rocky first inning for the L.A. ace. After allowing a hit and a walk, he fielded a two-out squib groundball to the left side of home plate by Manuel Margot and made a calmly and composed throw to first to end the frame unscathed.

Kershaw threw 20 pitches, with only one swinging strike, a strikeout of Hunter Renfroe. But on the Fox broadcast, analyst John Smoltz remarked with two on and two outs that if he got out of the first inning without allowing a run, he’d cruise through the rest of his start.

Boy was Smoltz right.

Kershaw cruised through the second and third innings, each on 11 pitches before slipping up and throwing 14 pitches in a 1-2-3 fourth.

Rays starter Tyler Glasnow hung tough with Kershaw until Cody Bellinger’s towering two-run homer to right-center field with one out in the fourth opened the scoring. Kershaw passed Smoltz in the fifth for second all-time in career postseason k’s, and ended up retiring 13 in a row before Kevin Kiermaier’s line drive homer cut the lead to 2-1.

But Los Angeles quickly got that run back and a whole lot more in the bottom half. Mookie Betts walked, stole second and a taco for everyone in America, stole third in a double steal after a Corey Seager walk and stole on a one out fielder’s choice with the infield in to make it 3-1. Will Smith then singled in Seager to make it 4-1, ending Glasnow’s night after 112 pitches, the most by any Rays hurler all season. He walked six in the game.

Ryan Yarbrough got the second out before Chris Taylor laced a single to left field to extend the lead to 5-1, and pinch hitter Kike Hernandez’s single to left made it 6-1. And when the Dodgers score at least several runs for Kershaw, good things usually happen.

After a long time sitting in the dugout, Kershaw quickly retired Tampa Bay in order in the sixth, ending the frame with just 76 pitches. Josh Fleming’s first pitch in the bottom half to Betts was hit over the fence in right field to make it a 7-1 rout. One out later, consecutive doubles by Justin Turner and Max Muncy accounted for the Dodgers’ 8th run of the evening. It’s the most runs L.A. has scored in a World Series game since its 13-12, 10-inning loss in Game 5 against Houston in 2017.

And with the game seemingly out of reach, there was no need to bring Kershaw out there for the seventh inning. Dylan Floro replaced the dominant lefty Kershaw, who for one night fulfilled the hopes and expectations of Dodgers and baseball fans everywhere. For at least this one night, playoff Clayton Kershaw lived up to the damn hype.