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Defending Los Angeles Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw

By Bryan Gibberman

Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw throws a pitch against the San Diego Padres during the game at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports
Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw throws a pitch against the San Diego Padres during the game at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports /
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Clayton Kershaw is one of baseball‘s best pitchers, but he’s taking a lot of heat for his failures

Los Angeles Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw wasn’t able to deliver for his team as they fell to the St. Louis Cardinals 3-1 in the National League Division Series. In the sixth inning of Game Four Kershaw gave up a crushing three-run homer to lefty first baseman Matt Adams and that was all the offense St. Louis would need in its 3-2 victory.

Kershaw has now developed a reputation as a pitcher who doesn’t perform in the playoffs and this is a tad bit harsh.

The soon to be three-time Cy Young award winner was 0-2 with a 7.82 ERA during the 2014 postseason. In his playoff career Kershaw is 1-4 in seven starts, 10 appearances, with a 5.20 ERA and 1.27 WHIP. During the regular season Kershaw has a 2.48 ERA and 1.06 WHIP.

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 /

First, Kershaw’s postseason numbers are negatively impacted by two relief appearances in 2008 plus his performance in 2009 when he was a great starter, but not the pitcher he is today. Across those 15.1 innings Kershaw tallied a WHIP over 1.50 and struck out less than a batter per inning.  Three of the 10 earned runs he gave up during this time was a reliever.

In 2013 Kershaw had three excellent starts.  Against the Braves in the National League Division Series he allowed one earned run across 13 innings on six hits with an 18 to four strikeout to walk ratio. During his first National League Championship Series start it was much of the same. Kershaw cruised through six inning giving up an unearned run, two hits with five strikeouts and one walk, but Los Angeles suffered a 1-0 loss.

His entire 2013 playoff resume looks awful because of one bad start in the series clinching Game Six.  Kershaw was tagged for seven runs and 10 hits in four-plus innings. This was a bad performance and overshadowed how he pitched the rest of this postseason.

His 2014 statistics were sullied by two bad innings.  There was stretch in Game One of his NLDS start versus the Cardinals that Kershaw retired 16 straight batters. He struck out 10 in the game and cruised for the majority of the start.  Randal Grichuck and Matt Carpenter connected for home runs leading to three runs before Kershaw fell apart in the seventh inning. In the eighth-run seventh LA’s ace gave up six hits and two runs leading to Kershaw getting pulled with the Dodgers still leading 6-4.  Los Angeles’ bullpen did pick up its star having him get charged with another four runs not being able to get the final out of the inning.

As discussed above Kershaw wasn’t even really that bad in the Game Four clincher for the Cardinals. He made one mistake to Matt Adams that led to three runs in six-plus innings. In 35.2 inning of work during the 2013 and 2014 playoffs Kershaw has struck out 47 batters with only nine walks. His WHIP in each was 1.09 and 1.11, higher than his regular seasons, but still really freaking good.

This is without getting into deserved criticism for manager Don Mattingly leaving his lefty out there to dry. You can make strong arguments there were spots he should have been pulled in both his starts during the 2014 postseason. Not to mention he pitched on three days rest in Game Four.

Kershaw’s 1-4 record playoff record and extremely high ERA are somewhat misleading of the way he’s pitched on the whole. He’s had more good starts than bad. When you’re the best player in the world at your position high level of criticism at the biggest moments are going to come your way. With how the Dodgers are positioned Kershaw will have plenty of time to turn his playoff narrative around. For now he’s just going to have to accept he is partially unfairly judged on an extremely small sample size.

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