Quest begins tonight in L.A.
Kershaw and Greinke make a pitch for comparisons to Koufax and Drysdale, but the current Dodgers can’t match past ones for postseason success.
Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke and Brett Anderson will be the first three starting pitchers in the series against the New York Mets.
As Tommy Lasorda reflected on the regular season recently completed by Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke, he did something unexpected.
The former Dodgers manager compared them to Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale.
Lasorda generally loathes cross-generational comparisons of pitchers. He once complained about a story that ran in this newspaper examining the similarities between Kershaw and Koufax, saying a pitcher who scales the mound once every five days couldn’t possibly be compared to one who did so every four.
Only now, Lasorda was shaking his head and saying of Greinke and Kershaw, “They’re doing the same thing that Drysdale and Koufax did. Same thing.” Well, almost. Koufax and Drysdale won three World Series championships together — in 1959, 1963 and 1965. Kershaw and Greinke are still in search of their first.
Kershaw and Greinke will start their latest attempt Friday, when the lefthanded Kershaw starts Game 1 of a National League division series against the New York Mets. The righthanded Greinke will follow him in the rotation a day later.
Their presence has emboldened the Dodgers, who last won a World Series in 1988.
“I don’t care what anybody says,” closer Kenley Jansen said. “Those are hands-down the two best pitchers in the game.”
Kershaw had a record of 16-7 with a 2.13 earned-run average. He struck out 301 batters, becoming the first pitcher in 13 years to record a 300-strikeout season. He topped the major leagues with 232 2⁄3 innings pitched, four complete games, and three shutouts.
If not for Greinke and Jake Arrieta of the Chicago Cubs, Kershaw probably would be collecting his fourth National League Cy Young Award.
Greinke received Kershaw’s endorsement for the prize. His record was 19-3 and his ERA 1.63 — the lowest in the major leagues since 1995, when Hall of Famer Greg Maddux posted a 1.63.
“I’ve been on some good teams, but I don’t think I’ve seen two guys like that,” pitching coach Rick Honeycutt said.
Honeycutt was a reliever for the Oakland Athletics in 1990, when Bob Welch won 27 games and Dave Stewart won 22. “But they didn’t have the dominant numbers that these two guys have,” Honeycutt said.
Welch had an ERA of 2.95 that season; Stewart’s was 2.56.
Honeycutt also pitched for the Dodgers in the mid-1980s when they had Fernando Valenzuela and Orel Hershiser. “But Fernando was going downward and Orel was coming up,” Honeycutt said.
Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling might be the most comparable starting pitcher duo in recent memory. They won a World Series with the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 2001 and each had more than 300 strikeouts the following year. However, in both 2001 and 2002, neither of them had an ERA as low as Kershaw’s, let alone Greinke’s.
While Kershaw and Greinke have produced similar results, their personalities on the mound are as different as Koufax’s and Drysdale’s were.
“They’re as polar opposite as you can get, the cerebral kind of calmness and professor-like stuff that Greinke does and the kind of bulldog, bite-your-head-off, I’m-going-to-dominate-you of Kershaw,” left-hander Brett Anderson said.
Greinke said he couldn’t pitch like Kershaw. “If I tried to use his mentality, it’s not good for me,” Greinke said. “And if he tries to use my mentality, it’s not good for him.”
How they prepare for their starts is also different. Whereas Kershaw adheres to a strict routine, Greinke relies more on feel.
“He’s doing the same thing all the time,” Greinke said. “I’m the exact opposite.”
Kershaw said Greinke’s approach has changed the way he views baseball.
“For me, it kind of proved the point that there is no right way to do something,” Kershaw said.
“Zack’s the epitome of that. I think you can safely say that Zack and I are complete opposites in how we go about it. It kind of opened my mind a little bit, not to be so one track as far as saying, ‘This is the right way to do things.’”
Kershaw has also gained an appreciation for Greinke’s craftsmanship. “I think the way he executes his pitches is probably the best I’ve ever seen,” Kershaw said. “He can throw anything at any time at any spot.”
Greinke continues to refer to Kershaw as the best pitcher in baseball. When he signed as a free agent with the Dodgers leading up to the 2013 season, Greinke said Kershaw was more or less what he thought he would be like.
“Everyone who’s played with him says the same stuff, so you have a good feeling coming in what he’s going to be like,” Greinke said, pausing before adding, “He’s probably more of a normal guy than you would expect,” Greinke said.
Why wouldn’t he be normal?
Greinke smiled. “Because he’s really religious,” he said.
It was clear Greinke meant no offense. If anything, it showed how much he likes Kershaw, something he later verbalized when he said, “He’s as good as it gets, person-wise and pitchingwise.”
Kershaw has similar thoughts about Greinke. “I consider Zack a friend,” Kershaw said. “I’ll hang out with him away from the field, for sure. Probably keep up with him when it’s all said and done.”
With Greinke holding the option to cancel the last three years of his contract and become a free agent at the end of the season, their time together could be coming to an end.
This will be their third postseason in as many years. Greinke is 1-1 with a 1.92 ERA in four playoff games with the Dodgers. In an NLDS against the St. Louis Cardinals last season, Greinke pitched seven scoreless innings in a no decision. Kershaw has pitched in 11 postseason games in his career. He has started six playoffs games in the last two years, posting an uncharacteristic 1-4 record and 4.79 ERA.
Kershaw’s postseasons have been marked with failure, in particular four crushing defeats to the St. Louis Cardinals.
Asked whether he felt more prepared than in the past to pitch under the October spotlight, Kershaw replied, “I don’t know if you can get wiser from failing all the time.”
Koufax and Drysdale endured their share of postseason failure as well.
Pitching in an era when the team with the best regular-season record in each league advanced directly to the World Series, Koufax had a 0.95 ERA in the postseason, but a 4-3 record. Drysdale was 3-3 with a 2.95 ERA in seven World Series games.
However, their careers were defined not by their defeats, but by their triumphs.
Jansen said he was confident Kershaw and Greinke would have similar legacies. Jansen was particularly optimistic Kershaw could restore his reputation as a biggame pitcher.
“I’m excited to see how Kershaw is going to come back and deal with what happened in the playoffs,” Jansen said. “I think that’s the last thing for him to prove. He’s the best pitcher in the game, but that’s the last thing for him to prove. I can’t wait to see him go out and dominate these playoffs.”