Clayton Kershaw dominates Giants for MLB best fourth complete game
By Mike Marteny
Clayton Kershaw is the best pitcher on the planet. Sorry, Adam Wainwright.
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Kershaw was dominant again last night, tossing a two hit shutout last night against the Giants. He struck out seven and walked only one. That still made his K:BB ratio worse!
That is how dominant Kershaw has been this season. Everyone knows about his near-perfect game that was still a no hitter in which he struck out 15. What you may not know is that over his last seven starts, he has a 0.63 ERA, 0.54 WHIP, and a 11.1 K/9 ratio.
Not good enough for you? How about this: over his last 101 starts, He has a 1.98 ERA.
That is a long period of established dominance that we have not seen since Bob Gibson in the late 60’s.
Pedro Martinez came close to this in 1999-2000, but it wasn’t 100 starts long.
Greg Maddux is the only other one that comes close with his period of dominance from 1992-1995. Maddux won four consecutive Cy Young Awards in that span.
This was Kershaw’s fourth complete game of the season so far, which leads the major leagues. He also leads the majors in wins(12), ERA(1.76), WHIP(0.80), K/9 ratio(11.3), and K:BB ratio(9.4). Oh, and he missed nearly a month due to injury.
This should be more than enough to land him his third career Cy Young Award. All at the age of 26.
Roger Clemens holds the record with 7 Cy Young Awards. He won his third in 1991 at the age of 28.
With the kind of dominance that Kershaw has displayed so far in his career, you have to think that he has a great shot at matching or beating the mark set by Clemens.