The St. Louis Cardinals have tormented Clayton Kershaw during his postseason career, but Saturday was no October night, as the left-hander turned in a dominant performance to help the Los Angeles Dodgers secure a series win behind a 1-0 victory.
Kershaw was efficient early and retired the first 13 batters faced, reaching that point without a hard-hit ball allowed. That changed when Dylan Carlson’s line drive carried past Miguel Vargas’ outstretched arm for a one-out single in the fifth inning to break up Kershaw’s perfect game.
Any sting from what had the makings of a historic performance being lost was wiped away in some regard when Paul Goldschmidt to led off the seventh inning with a single. Those were the only two hits Kershaw allowed as he finished with nine strikeouts over seven scoreless innings.
The Dodgers needed every bit of Kershaw’s brilliance as their lineup didn’t have many bright spots against Jordan Montgomery. One of them was James Outman collecting a single in his first two at-bats after going 0-for-11 with nine strikeouts in his past three games.
Outman stole second base after his single in the second inning, and it was cashed in by Austin Barnes on his RBI base hit.
Miguel Vargas led off the bottom of the seventh with a double and Barnes kept the inning alive with a two-out walk, but the Cardinals turned to their bullpen and Jordan Hicks froze Mookie Betts with a 103 mph sinker. Betts didn’t aid his efforts by picking up a pitch timer violation that started his at-bat 0-1.
Dodgers bullpen backs Clayton Kershaw
Despite Kershaw only being at 88 pitches, manager Dave Roberts elected to put the game in the hands of the Dodgers bullpen for the final two innings.
They rewarded Roberts for that trust, beginning with Evan Phillips working around a two-out walk and Chris Taylor error in the eighth, and Brusdar Graterol stranding a two-out single in the ninth inning to complete the Dodgers’ second shutout win of the season.
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