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Clayton Kershaw has been figured out by the St. Louis Cardinals

By Patrick Gordon

Clayton Kershaw is the best pitcher on the planet bar none, but have the St. Louis Cardinals figured him out? Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
Clayton Kershaw is the best pitcher on the planet bar none, but have the St. Louis Cardinals figured him out? Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports /
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Clayton Kershaw is the best pitcher on the planet bar none, but have the St. Louis Cardinals figured him out?

There’s no question that Clayton Kershaw is currently the best pitcher in baseball. His 2014 numbers were absolutely mind-numbing. He’s an absolute lock for the NL Cy Young award and one of the favorites to win MVP, an award rarely given to pitchers.

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But have the St. Louis Cardinals unlocked the mystery of Clayton Kershaw’s greatness? Despite a strong start to last night’s game, it appears as though the Cardinals might have Kershaw’s number.

There are whispers that Clayton Kershaw might be tipping his pitches, particularly when he’s throwing from the stretch, or that Cardinals base runners might be stealing signs. That could make sense, since most of Clayton Kershaw’s struggles came with men on base.

That having been said, most pitchers are better with the bases empty. Clayton Kershaw also shrugged off the notion that the Cardinals are stealing signs, saying that idea discredits the Cardinals and their stellar lineup.

Ken Rosenthal talked to a scout who was at the game, and was told that the Cardinals have noticed something that Clayton Kershaw does quite often and are capitalizing on it.

Via Rosenthal:

"The scout also noted that the Cardinals were attacking the first pitch, knowing Kershaw’s tendencies. Kershaw threw 25 of 28 first-pitch fastballs Friday night (89.3 percent), according to STATS LLC. For the season, he threw first-pitch fastballs 85.4 percent of the time, the highest percentage in the majors."

Clayton Kershaw’s fastball is electric, in the mid 90s with a nice bite. But when the other team knows it’s coming, it’s far more hittable. That might be the case, since several of the Cardinals’ biggest hits against Clayton Kershaw came against first-pitch fastballs.

As the game wore on, Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis called even more first-pitch fastballs in an effort to make sure Clayton Kershaw threw strikes, which was intended to keep his pitch count down.

Clayton Kershaw is able to throw strikes consistently with multiple pitches, including a rather filthy curve and a hard slider. While it may have worked really well for him to throw first-pitch fastballs to a vast majority of hitters in the regular season, it might be time for him to mix it up a bit more and try to get the Cardinals off-balance.

If Clayton Kershaw gets lit up again, it could very well mean the end of the Dodgers’ World Series hopes in 2014.

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