New York Mets: Clayton Kershaw overcomes postseason woes

By Michael Papandrea | Oct 14, 2015

Clayton Kershaw was able to tame the New York Mets offense for seven innings of one run ball to help keep the Dodgers postseason hopes alive. The Mets fell behind early by three runs, similar to the previous game that they came back to win 13-7. But on this night, they were unable to make a comeback against the best pitcher of his generation, and fell to the Dodgers by a final score of 3-1.

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The narrative on Kershaw was that he can’t pitch in the postseason. That’s primarily because he came into the night with nine playoff starts and a 4.99 ERA to show for it. But on Tuesday night at Citi Field, he was able to settle in and pitch like a three-time Cy Young award winner. At one point he had fanned six out of seven Mets hitters.

The only Met who was able to get to Kershaw was Daniel Murphy, who went deep in the 4th inning for his second home run of the series – both off the southpaw. As for the Mets left-hander, Steven Matz pitched an okay game, but it certainly wasn’t the type of start he envisioned.

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The Long Island native went five innings, surrendering three runs, all of which came in the third inning. With two outs and a runner on second, Howie Kendrick singled on a 1-2 count, which advanced Kike Hernandez to third since he was running on the pitch. Kendrick has been a pain for the Mets in this series, having gone 5-for-13 with a home run, four RBIs, and three runs scored.

Another Dodgers batter who has hit the Mets well in this series was the next man up, Adrian Gonzalez. Matz got Gonzo to hit the ball weakly in the air, but the blooper landed in front of Juan Lagares to plate the first run of the game. Former Met Justin Turner was next, and he hit a double down the left field line that was misplayed by Yoenis Cespedes to put the Mets down 3-0.

The Mets did have multiple opportunities to put runs on the board, but came up short to the combination of Kershaw and Kensley Jansen. In the seventh, after a leadoff single by Cespedes on a chopper that played like a bunt, the crowd started to regain some of the life it had lost.

The seventh inning has been Kershaw’s biggest challenge, and thats when the Mets got to him in the series opener for a pair of runs. But he was able to settle down and get the next three batters out to send the Dodgers to the eighth with the lead.

That’s when manager Don Mattingly went to the bullpen to relieve his ace who was pitching on three days rest. He brought on Chris Hatcher, who successfully retired the first two batters he faced, but Curtis Granderson was able to draw a two out walk which led Mattingly to go to his shutdown closer.

Jansen’s first batter was Wright, and he put a great at bat together which led to a walk. With runners on first and second, the go-ahead run came to the plate in Murphy. Mets fans everywhere were dreaming about Murphy hitting his second home run of the game, but that remained a fantasy as he flied out to right field to end the inning.

In the ninth, it was 1-2-3 for Jansen, who dominated in Mariano Rivera-esque fashion by completing the four out save with just one pitch – the cutter.

The final game of this intriguing series will take place on Thursday night at Dodger Stadium, and will feature two of the best arms in baseball in Jacob deGrom and Zack Greinke. The winner will get to face the Chicago Cubs and will also have home field advantage.

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