ARLINGTON, Texas – Settings change, circumstances evolve, and although it always seems to be pulling a little away from Clayton Kershav, a promising bullpen fails to pick it up, a high power offense gets smaller, breaks down at a very bad time Gone machine oil.
The background for the recent fall of the Los Angeles Dodgers was Game 4 of the 2020 National League Championship Series, played under a weeping wind in a neutral stadium that filled only a quarter. It was, more specifically, at the bottom of Thursday’s sixth, when the Atlanta Braves’ high-powered offense suddenly came to life and didn’t mass-star down the star-filled dodgers.
The Braves scored six runs in that half-innings, commanding a 3-1 series compared to a 10-2 win, and giving them an 85% chance, based on the history of the seven-game postseason series. Moving on to the World Series. In the short-term regular season the Dallas Jerseys, 43-17 with a plus-136 run difference, are a loss from a spectacular distance.
Blame should not be singular.
You can point out his decent offense, who managed nothing but a home run alone for the first six innings and three hits for the entire game against 22-year-old Bry Wilson. You can point to his supposedly deep undefeated bullpen, who have conceded 15 runs in 15⅔ innings in the series. You can point to Kershaw, who once again didn’t do enough in season teasing. And you can point to the manager, Dave Roberts, who probably once again had a little more time than needed with his ace.
“I just thought Kershaw was throwing baseball really well, and there’s no reason not to,” Roberts said when asked about going into his bullpen a while ago. “I felt really good about it.”
When Kershaw was hitting the mound for that bottom of the sixth, he gave up just one run and used only pit1 pitches. Was at the top of Bahadur’s order. As Kershaw navigated with leadoff hitter Ronald Aquina Jr. on his bat, Brusder Greatroll began to heat up. At that point, when Akuna pulled out the infield single, and moved to another base on an erroneous throw, the Great Roll was almost ready. After Freddie Freeman double-fielded the RBI, away from the shifted put bets, Greatroll was waiting. After Marcel Ozuna doubled the RBI to a left-mid-field distance, the second of his four successes, it was too late.
Ozuna was facing Kersho last time. Before the postseason began, he was batting .356 / .463 / .867 off lefties and .333 / .381 / .556 off curved balls, the full count pitch he finally put on the game’s third run brave plate. It was the worst matchup on the worst uncertain decision.
“I won’t take Clayton out after a weak ground ball and another ground ball from Freeman’s bat,” Roberts said, adding that Ozuna’s bat ball “didn’t hit too hard,” although it traveled at 108 miles per hour. Is. .
“I felt really good with Clayton at the time.”
The decision is a sign of Roberts’ deep-rooted, perhaps uncontrollable, confidence in Kersh, a feature that may have helped remove Dodgers from last year’s postseason. It also turned out that Bullpen is no more relaxed than the three Roberts talked about all summer, he really trusts the game on the line, one of which is no longer Kenley Jensen. Game 5 was saved with Dustin May and Walker Buhler was basically only available for relief if Kersh’s back flared up again, Roberts’ options were surprisingly fragile.
Gratroll and Victor Gonzalez allowed five of the two batters to reach the base and spread the offense with a late-inning comeback in the ensuing offense that probably wouldn’t have mattered in any way. Perhaps there was nothing Roberts could do to save the Dobers from melting on the shores of their season.
And perhaps Kershaw’s statement about postseason struggles can never be won.
His career IRAs are now as follows: 2.43 in the regular season, 3.68 in the division series and wild-card round, 4.84 in the LCS, 5.40 in the world series. ESPN According to statistics and data research, its postseason Era from the sixth inning is 7.31, the worst position of any starter with at least 20 innings in the scenario. His three go-hits in the sixth inning or later since the 2013 postseason tied with Justin Verlander for the second consecutive season.
Roberts refused to ask Kershav to come forward short as a big character in the big game, saying he gave his team a chance and did not cover their offense.
“That story,” Roberts said, “could not be further from the truth.”
Here’s what’s true: If the Dodgers aren’t tied for three wins in a row, their second impressive asons will end bitterly against two of those early pitchers who stopped them earlier in the series.
That may be their biggest disappointment.
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