Clayton Kershaw took the mound Sunday night against the Chicago Cubs in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series a fourth time in the past 10 days. It was his third time pitching in the past six days, and Kershaw was a mere two days removed from closing out Game 5 of the NL Division Series.
Washington Nationals manager Dusty Baker openly wondered how Kershaw and Kenley Jansen would fare after both were heavily leaned on to eliminate his club. “I’d be interested to see, you know, they won the war,” Baker said Thursday, “But to see the effects of Jansen and Kershaw when they get to Chicago.”
Baker wasn’t alone in wondering what lingering effects Kershaw may suffer from. “The fact that he’s been on such a heavy load lately, it’s going to be just interesting to see where he’s at,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said prior to Game 2.
“I think that command and velocity will tell you a lot early on. I anticipate good from him, but how sustainable is it?”
Kershaw Jansen emphatically answered that question. He held the Cubs to two hits over seven shutout innings. His fastball had its regular zip, and slider its typical bite. Kershaw admittedly did not have his best breaking ball.
While others around him wondered, what toll the high usage this postseason would have did not concern Kershaw. “Not the workload so much, just the routine was so much different,” he explained to Ken Rosenthal in a postgame on Fox Sports 1.
“Obviously, throwing on short rest and then a couple outs in Game 5, it’s just a lot different. A little more intense than most in-between starts. More than anything, just the unexpected. I didn’t know how I was going to react. But I felt good coming out [Sunday], I think the ball was coming out fine.”
The performance left Maddon signing Kershaw’s praises. “Give him credit, man,” he said. “The thing that I was really curious about was velocity and location before the game, and he had both. Command of his fastball was outstanding.”
Kershaw’s brushes with trouble came in the fifth and seventh innings. Javier Baez broke up his perfect game by staying back on a curveball to line a two-out single into center field. Wilson Contreras followed with a base hit to keep the inning alive for Jason Heyward.
Although Heyward struggled all season, Maddon didn’t elect to pinch-hit. Heyward fouled out to Justin Turner. Anthony Rizzo drew a leadoff walk on four pitches in the seventh. Kershaw overcame a dropped foul ball to strikeout Ben Zobrist, and got Addison Russell to fly out.
After lobbying to remain in the game, the three-time Cy Young Award winner had some luck on his side as Baez’s drive to center field died at the warning track. Kershaw’s outing further distanced him from the narrative of being unable to pitch in marquee games come October.
Not that he paused to take that in. “It’s fun when you win, so, yeah, I mean, I’m enjoying it right now,” Kershaw said. “When you’re in the moment, you’re just trying to just constantly stop runs, preventing runs.
“And the way that Hendricks was throwing, it was one of those games where one pitch could have been the deciding factor. So, really just kind of couldn’t look up for a minute for air and just kind of kept going through it and fortunate to get through it tonight.”
