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Alden Gonzalez
Los Angeles– tanner scott In what was later described as a personal matter, he was absent, two other left-handed relievers had already been used, and los angeles dodgers Manager Dave Roberts did not want to use his three best relievers—two of them replacing starting pitchers—in losses.
And so, in the eighth inning of a two-run game on Wednesday night, clayton kershaw He returned to the field in hopes of keeping the score manageable by providing his team three extra outs – and that’s when Game 3 of the National League Division Series was settled.
JT Realmuto Leading off with the home run, six other batters reached base, and by the end of it, philadelphia phillies Five extra runs were scored while moving towards win 8-2 Which saved his season.
Kershaw, a future Hall of Fame left-hander who will retire at the end of the season, was making his first postseason relief appearance since the decisive Game 5 of the 2019 NLDS when he returned for the second inning and surrendered back-to-back, score-tying home runs. Anthony Rendon And juan sotoAfter being bowled out scoreless in the seventh innings, his latest relief outing could have ended in a spectacular manner. Instead, it ended in disappointment.
“Didn’t make enough good pitches,” Kershaw said, his team still leading 2-1 in this best-of-five series. “I struggled with command. It’s hard when you’re trying to attack instead of taking people out. It was no fun.”
The sold-out crowd of 53,689 began to roar as the left-field-bullpen gates opened, Kershaw’s entrance song played and No. 22 himself ran to the mound. He was tasked with taking down the top of the Phillies’ order immediately after fellow lefty anthony banda And jack dreyer Pitched a scoreless inning to preserve the Dodgers’ two-run deficit.
Kershaw allowed the first two batters to reach, then took advantage of some good fortune. dodgers right fielder teoscar hernandez Made a diving catch to steal a hit bryce harper, kyle schwarber Then he got caught in the dirt on the middle pitch and was thrown out at first base. After two at-bats, brandon marsh Hit a 108 mph line drive straight into Hernandez’s glove. Enjoying another opportunity to celebrate one of the greatest players in franchise history, the crowd roared again – just before watching him throw another nightmare inning in October.
A after Realmuto’s homer max kepler Walk, followed by an error up the middle by the Dodgers’ third baseman max munseyAfter a sacrifice bunt put both runners up, tree turner Hit a two-run single into the empty outfield. Schwarber then provided the Dodgers with a skyscraper two-run homer that bounced over the top of the right-field wall – his 455-foot home run after four innings nearly cleared the roof of Dodger Stadium.
Was enrique hernandez Harper did not put out Harper trying to score from second on a single, and did justin dean Had Marsh not jumped against the fence to snatch the extra base, at least two additional runs would have been scored.
“It was tough to watch,” Dodgers shortstop mookie bets Said. “But we can’t use two innings for this – he’s going to get a statue erected in front of Dodger Stadium. Keep that in mind and understand that, in the grand scheme of things, Kershaw is a first-ballot Hall of Famer, one of the best to ever do it. So if you waste two innings, you don’t know baseball.”
Putting Kershaw in that position says a lot about the state of the Dodgers bullpen.
The Dodgers relievers finished the regular season ranked 21st in the majors in ERA and did not inspire much confidence during the stretch run of the season. The Dodgers hoped to use the depth of their starting rotation to make up for their bullpen deficiencies during the postseason, but it has proven to have its limitations.
Emmett Sheehan And roki sasakiNow used to maintain a lead until late, has come with restrictions, especially as it relates to being used on back-to-back nights. Using Sheehan or Sasaki in Game 3 means they will likely be unavailable in Game 4. tyler glasnow Was used to bridge the gap in Game 1, but he is the scheduled starter for Game 4 on Thursday. Scott, whose absence was not known until Roberts revealed it after the game, was not a substitute at all.
he left blake traininThat ended the ninth inning of pitching that basically turned out to be a blowout, and alex vesiaAnother high-leverage reliever, Roberts likes to save leads. Instead, Kershaw was asked to handle more workload than he should and struggled to do so, a situation that defined his October career.
Kershaw faced nine batters in the eighth inning. Three of them threw the first pitch into the game. He fell behind in the count against each of the other six. Roberts said that Kershaw “didn’t have any great slider tonight” and that his overall command was poor, which was perhaps to be expected. The only time in the last six years Kershaw had come out of the bullpen to prepare for such a role was two weeks earlier, on September 24.
This time, Kershaw said, he did everything he could to prepare himself while opting out of his normal pre-start routine, including throwing flat ground before climbing the bullpen mound.
It didn’t work, and when it became clear it wouldn’t work, no one was there to save him.
“You don’t really think about it,” Kershaw said of being out in the eighth inning. “You just try to make the next pitch. That’s not really for us. You just try to strike guys out. I wasn’t throwing strikes, and it’s hard to be behind in the count.”
