Clayton Kershaw strikes out nine, first in MLB to 19 wins
By Hayden Kane
Los Angeles Dodgers’ ace Clayton Kershaw is a lock for the National League Cy Young award. The question at this point has more to do with whether or not the Kershaw is worthy of consideration of the National League MVP award.
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In perhaps their biggest game of the season to date in San Francisco against the Giants on Sunday afternoon, Kershaw took the mound and pitched like a true ace. As the lefty struck out nine hitters on the Giants and became the first pitcher in baseball to reach 19 wins, he reminded the rest of the league what it looks like when a team has a legitimate ace.
Every team in baseball has a “number one starter,” but very few have an actual ace. The Dodgers do with Kershaw, and he is the best in baseball.
As far as his actual strikeouts are concerned, here is one example of Kershaw freezing Angel Pagan with a curveball that is just plain dirty.
The silly thing about Kershaw is this: his curveball isn’t even his best pitch. His nastiest pitch is likely his slider, which Hunter Pence experienced firsthand on this strikeout:
As if that wasn’t enough, Kershaw made one of the best hitters in the National League look bad twice in this game. Here is his first strikeout of Buster Posey:
And here is the second strikeout Kershaw logged against Posey, also with a slider and with even more befuddlement.
We are witnessing something historic with Kershaw this season. It will be fascinating to see how that translates to the postseason in the National League.
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