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ARLINGTON, Texas – Clayton Kershaw’s brilliant career lacked two of the most satisfying accomplishments: a World Series victory and a championship ring.
He took to the mound on Sunday night (Monday Manila time) with the Los Angeles Dodgers shaken, and Kershaw stabilized his team with a courageous performance, plus a particular home delivery that will be long remembered.
Now, with one more victory, the Dodgers would claim their first title since 1988.
Kershaw beat the Tampa Bay Rays for the second time in six days, escaping a fourth-inning jam with a quick-reaction shot to cut through Manuel Margot trying to steal his home, and the Dodgers held on for a 4-4 win. 2 and a 3-2 series cable.
“Well, it’s happened to me before, at least one other time that I can remember,” Kershaw said. “Carlos Gomez tried it against me in Houston once. You know, I work on that with first basemen. “
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Max Muncy, watching from the beginning, was ready.
“I was lucky enough to see one or two guys break down hard, so I knew what to expect when it broke,” Muncy said. “I ran to Kersh and said, ‘Home! House! House!'”
Mookie Betts and Corey Seager sparked a two-run first inning, and Joc Pederson and Muncy homered off long ball-prone Tyler Glasnow whose 100 mph heat burned out.
With his disheveled dark brown hair dangling with sweat, Kershaw was on the move when Dodgers manager Dave Roberts knocked out the 32-year-old southpaw in favor of Dustin May after getting two outs on two pitches in the sixth inning.
The mostly pro-Dodgers fans in the pandemic-reduced crowd of 11,437 booed as Roberts walked onto the mound, keenly aware of what happened to the bullpen the night before, when closer Kenley Jansen blew a lead in the ninth inning. at an impressive 8-7. lost.
Those boos quickly turned to cheers as Los Angeles fans greeted Kershaw, a three-time National League Cy Young Award winner, as he walked to the dugout. Kershaw improved to 13-12 in the postseason, including 4-1 this year.
May, Victor Gonzalez and Blake Treinen combined for a two-hit no-run relief. May got five outs, Gonzalez stranded a pair of running backs in the eighth by retiring Randy Arozarena and Brandon Lowe in flyouts, and Treinen got three outs to become the Dodgers’ fourth pitcher with a postseason save.
“Kersh, he has a lot of credit for what we’ve been able to do in this World Series,” Treinen said. “There is a tough narrative about him. He’s a phenomenal pitcher on the biggest stage. “
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Margot singled into the ninth, but Austin Meadows struck out, Joey Wendle flied out and Willy Adames struck out.
Thirty of the 46 previous teams that won Game 5 by a 3-2 lead have won the title, but only six of the last 14. Teams that blew the 3-2 leads include last year’s Houston Astros .
Tony Gonsolin will start for the Dodgers on Tuesday, when Game 2 winner Blake Snell pitches for Tampa Bay.
Walker Buehler, the 26-year-old right-hander who has supplanted Kershaw at the Dodgers ace, awaits Game 7 backstage as a Hollywood backup ready for a lead role.
With a 175-76 regular-season record, five ERA titles and one MVP, Kershaw ranks alongside Dodger greats Sandy Koufax, Fernando Valenzuela and Orel Hershiser. He won the opening of the World Series in 2017 and again this year, but failed in Game 5 in both 2017 and 2018 and never won a title.
A native Dallas pitcher near his offseason home, Kershaw put out the Rays with two runs and five hits with six strikeouts and two walks. He is 2-0 with a 2.31 ERA in 15 2/3 innings in two starts this Series with 14 strikeouts and three walks. Kershaw also set a career postseason record with 207 strikeouts, two more than Justin Verlander’s previous mark.
With a 3-0 lead, Kershaw allowed Tampa Bay to get within a run in the third when Kevin Kiermaier singled, Yandy Diaz hit a 3-pointer on a ball on the right-field line that passed Betts and Arozarena’s single. . The 25-year-old Cuban rookie called for the ball after his 27th postseason record hit, one more than San Francisco’s Pablo Sandoval in 2014.
“I didn’t have my things like I had them in Game 1,” Kershaw said. “My slider wasn’t as good as it was, so lucky to be there.”
Kershaw escaped a jam with no outs in the first and third in the fourth after Margot walked at the start, stole second and continued to third when the ball slipped away from second baseman Chris Taylor for his second big error in two games. . Hunter Renfroe also walked, but Wendle jumped and Adames struck out.
With Kiermaier at the plate, Margot ran home when Kershaw raised both hands above her head in their instantly recognizable stretch position. While many pitchers may have panicked and perhaps resisted, Kershaw coldly and quickly got off the rubber and calmly threw receiver Austin Barnes.
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Barnes caught the ball and put his glove on Margot’s outstretched hand as the runner’s helmet fell off and he cut his lip.
Margot went off on her own, manager Kevin Cash said, and became the first runner caught stealing home in the Series since Minnesota’s Shane Mack in Game 4 in 2001.
The roof of Globe Life Field closed on the cold and rainy night, as it was for Game 3, and the visiting Dodgers broke on top of 10 pitches against Glasnow, a lanky 6-foot-8 right-hander who appeared to be toppling.
Glasnow allowed four runs and six hits in five innings, leaving him 0-2 with a 9.64 ERA in the Series. The two home runs brought his total to a record nine in a single postseason.
Betts doubled down on a 99 mph fastball early and scored two pitches later when Seager hit a curveball to right field for a single and his 19th postseason RBI. This Series joined 1932 as the only years with runs in the first four consecutive innings.
Seager advanced on a wild pitch, Muncy got his 20th postseason walk, and after a two-out wild pitch, Cody Bellinger hit a grounder that was stopped without a play by Lowe, second baseman on the right-field grass. . Seager scored the Dodgers ’58th run with two outs this postseason and became the first player to cross the plate in each of the first five Series games since the Yankees’ Derek Jeter in 2000.
Glasnow tied a Series record with two wild pitches in the inning of 34 pitches and set the mark with three in the game.
Pederson hit a 428-foot opposite field drive to the left on a fastball in the letters for a 3-0 lead in the second.
Glasnow retired eight in a row before Muncy hit a home run in the fifth to make it 4-2. He became the Dodgers’ ninth record player to hit home runs in the postseason, one more than the 1989 Oakland Athletics of Bash Brothers fame.
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Dodgers: Bellinger was back in center field one day after switching to designated hitter due to a stiff lower back.
UNTIL NEXT TIME
Gonsolin allowed Lowe’s home run in the first inning in Game 2 and left after 1 1/3 innings.
Snell, the 2018 American League Cy Young Award winner, allowed two runs and two hits in 4 2/3 innings in Game 2 with nine strikeouts and four walks.
