Clayton Kershaw did it all on Wednesday night. He allowed only hit in five scoreless innings. He won his 19th game. Heck, he even laid down a sacrifice bunt.
He also got ejected in a crazy sixth inning.
Luckily for him and the Dodgers, they were able to hold on to beat the Diamondbacks, 3-2. After dropping the first couple of games, the Dodgers got one back and are now two games under .500.
After Kershaw got through the first on only nine pitches, the Dodgers sent seven batters to the plate for a couple of runs. Dee Gordon singled leading off, and Tony Gwynn beat out a bunt for two on. Gordon showed his youth (that is, made a boneheaded decision) by trying to swipe third with Kemp up and got nailed. Actually, he sure looked safe to me, but that's not how the call went, so it was a dumb move.
Gwynn took second on the play, and he hustled around to just beat the throw home on Kemp's single to make it 1-0. Kemp then went to third on James Loney's grounder, and Aaron Miles walked to keep the inning going. Jerry Sands hit an RBI single off shortstop Willie Bloomquist, and it was 2-0.
Kershaw looked to be well on his way to another gem, possibly the complete game version considering he was only at 63 pitches when he got tossed. The trouble actually stemmed from the night before when Gerardo Parra admired his home run off of Hong-Chih Kuo. Kershaw didn't like that and yelled at him from the dugout. Who's the only person to get a hit off him in this one? That's right, Parra, on a double in the third.
So with Parra getting plunked to start the sixth, you had to wonder if something would happen. It did, as Kershaw was immediately run from the game. The pitch hit Parra's elbow, which was close to the plate, so it wasn't the traditional beaning of the back. Still, as is usually the case these days, umpires don't mess around with this stuff and opt for the ejections.
Josh Lindblom relieved and struck out the side to keep the Dodgers on top. He then gathered a couple more strikeouts in the seventh for an impressive two innings. Let's hope he can keep that up.
With Javy Guerra taking the night off after taking the loss on Tuesday, that also bumped Kenley Jansen from the setup role to the closer spot, and Don Mattingly had a decision to make. Nathan Eovaldi was given the ball in the eighth, and it didn't start off well as Ryan Roberts doubled. Smug little Parra then lifted a long fly ball to right that almost went out, but was caught by Sands. Geoff Blum got a run in on a groundout, and it was now 2-1.
The Dodgers responded off of Ryan Cook, who was relieving Daniel Hudson. Kemp took a walk with one out, then got his 39th stolen base. Loney also drew a walk. Aaron Miles came through with an RBI single to go up 3-1 and grab that important insurance run.
It's a good thing Miles did get that hit, because Jansen gave one back in the ninth before closing it out. Aaron Hill singled leading off, and after advancing to second a couple outs later, scored on Miguel Montero's RBI single. Chris Young struck out to end the game and give Jansen his fourth save.
It's a shame Kershaw didn't get a chance to finish what he started, but Lindblom more than picked him up. With five shutout innings, Kershaw's stats are even filthier: 19-5, 2.30 ERA, 0.98 WHIP, and 236 K's in 218 2/3 innings. In addition to leading the National League in strikeouts, he's 0.01 ahead of Johnny Cueto for the ERA lead, and tied with Ian Kennedy for tops in wins.
Call me biased, but I'm pretty sure those numbers alone are Cy Young worthy.
There's now 13 games left in the season, and the Dodgers will face the Pirates for four, then Giants for three, then hit the road to play the Padres and DBacks for three each. Mattingly has already stated that in the upcoming Pirates series, he will play the young guns. So look for lineups that include Gordon, Sands, Justin Sellers, Russ Mitchell, Trent Oeltjen, and even Tim Federowicz. Not sure how that'll play out, but the Pirates are back to sucking again, so maybe it'll be fine.
Dana Eveland has been fantastic in his only two starts, and he'll look to improve to 3-0 on Thursday.
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