Dodgers’ drought reaches 30 years
Darvish struggles again, pitching Los Angeles into five-run hole in Game 7
LOS ANGELES >> Even Clayton Kershaw couldn’t save the Dodgers in Game 7 of the World Series.
The three-time NL Cy Young Award winner tossed four scoreless innings of relief when starter Yu Darvish fell into a five-run hole after 1 2/3 innings Wednesday night.
“I know he wanted the baseball. I know he was prepared. I just can’t explain the results,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I understand it’s Game 7, but I just felt his stuff was good.”
But the Dodgers’ offense never put it together. Los Angeles mustered just six hits, hit into a double play and stranded 10 runners in a 5-1 loss to Houston that extended its championship drought to 30 years.
It was a clunker of an ending for baseball’s best team during the regular season.
The Dodgers won 104 games, boasted an NL-leading six All-Stars and won the NL West for the fifth consecutive year. They won 43 of 50 games over a twomonth stretch from June to early August, the best 50-game run in the majors since the 1912 New York Giants.
Their lead reached a whopping 21 games on Aug. 23, and they survived an 11-game September skid to coast into October.
Boasting the majors’ highest payroll of $240 million, Los Angeles rolled past Arizona in the NL Division
Series and then knocked off the defending champion Cubs in six games in the NL Championship Series to reach their first World Series since 1988.
The Dodgers and Astros dueled to a 3-all tie through six thrilling games, with Los Angeles rallying to force the first World Series Game 7 in
Dodger Stadium history.
But, a few miles from Hollywood, the script got flipped.
Manager Dave Roberts, so quick with his hook all season, left Darvish in to face hot-hitting George Springer in the second. Springer blasted a two-run homer — his record-tying fifth of the Series — and Houston extended its lead to 5-0.
Brandon Morrow got the last out of the inning before Kershaw came on in the third. The left-handed ace allowed two hits, struck out four and walked two, leaving fans to question why Roberts didn’t start Kershaw on short rest in the first place. Or at least bring in Kershaw to face Springer in the second.
Especially since Darvish only managed five outs in losing Game 3 at Houston, when he also lasted just 1 2/3 innings.
He’s the second pitcher in World Series history with less than two innings pitched in two starts.
Darvish took the loss, giving up five runs — four earned — and three hits. He didn’t record a strikeout and walked one.
“I let my teammates down,” he said through a translator.
Acquired at the July trade deadline, Darvish was best known in the Series for being the target of a racist gesture by Astros first baseman Yuli Gurriel.
Kenley Jansen appeared earlier than usual, too. The closer trotted out in the seventh to face the top of the Astros’ order.
Roberts made 32 pitching changes in the Series, breaking a record set by St. Louis’ Tony La Russa in 2011.
Andre Ethier pushed across the lone run in the sixth.
The big bats of Chris Taylor, Corey Seager, Turner, Cody Bellinger, Yasiel Puig and Joc Pederson were a combined 4 for 22. Bellinger whiffed three times, and his 17 strikeouts were a Series record. He also broke Yankees star Aaron Judge’s freshly set record with 29 strikeouts this postseason.