Not a sound, not a Cy could sum up this burden
The devastation began slowly, painfully, a nick here, a crack there, a bleeder, a blink, the quickening of a heartbeat.
Is this really happening? This is Clayton Kershaw. How could this be happening?
The devastation then finished quickly, suffocatingly, boom, pause, stunned silence, boom, lead lost, Cy crushed, season gasping.
Yes, thiswas really happening. Yes, in about 20 sweltering minutes early Friday evening, the two-time Cy Young Award winner blewa five- run lead, the richest payroll in baseball blewa seemingly certain win, and raucous Dodger Stadium flat melted.
“There are no words you can use right now,” said a somber A. J. Ellis.
Thiswas a speechless defeat indeed, a10- 9 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in the opener of the National League division series that ranks as theworst Dodgers postseason loss since Tom Lasorda failed to walk Jack Clark in the ninth inning of Game6 of the 1985 National League Championship Series against the Cardinals.
“Maybe a little shocked,” said Matt Kempin an understatement as massive as the Cardinals’ comeback.
Thiswas even worse than Jimmy Rollins’ tworun, walk- off double for the Philadelphia Phillies’ in Game4 of the 2009National League Championship Series, because on the mound then was merely Jonathan Broxton, not the great Kershaw.
Thiswas all about Kershaw. Thiswas all about the Dodgers’ best player and teamleader having seemingly over come last season’s playoff debacle in St. Louis and set the tone for a Bulldogtype October. This is about how, instead, that nightmare reappeared, and nowthe Dodgers’ season could be swallowed by it.
Teams that win the opener of the short division series have won those series 71% of the time. Teams that beat the game’s best active pitcher to win that opener? The Cards will ride into Saturday’s Game 2 on a roll that Zack Greinke must stop to save the season.
After Friday’s loss, Ellis gave a quick clubhouse speech to remind his teammates that twice in September they lost a tough opener of a three- gameseries with the Giants and wound up winning the series. But no loss this season, or in many seasons, has been this tough.
“We have a great team, and if I don’t get in theway, we have a pretty good chance to win that game,” said Kershawl ater, looking dazed, standing with his back to a concrete hallway wall, his wet hair hanging in his face. Was it from sweat or the shower?
With two out in the sixth inning, Kershaw was leading 6- 1, had retired16 consecutive batters, and the game truly seemed over.
“Hewas dominant, he was vintage Clayton, hewas burying guys with the breaking ball,” said Ellis.
Then suddenly vintage Clayton became vaporized Clayton, as he became buried under his fastball, the 92- degree temperatures, and Cardinals hitters who seemed to know exactly what pitch was coming, as if Kershaw was tipping his pitches while throwing from the stretch.
“It kind of all came crashing down,” Kershaw said.
The fall began when he allowed a line drive over the right- field fence to Matt Carpenter in the sixth inning. Then when he took the mound in the seventh, the manwho once pitched 41 consecutive scoreless innings this year gave up five singles to six batters. At that point Kershaw had thrown 99 pitches, andwas clearly gassed, and out to the mound ran Manager Don Mattingly.
In most situations on most teams, Kershaw would have been replaced. But the Dodgers don’t have the sort of trustworthy middle relievers whowould justify removing their toughest competitor, a guy who has led the major leagues in earned- run average for four consecutive seasons for a reason. Did you really want to see weary J. P. Howell there instead of Kershaw? Howabout inconsistent Brian Wilson, did youwant to see him?
Mattingly left Kershaw in the game, and it’s hard to blame him. Thiswas not about a manager’s decision, but the makeup of a bullpen that has never lived up to its expensive expectations.
Said Mattingly: “It’s really hard to take Clayton out.”
Adde dKemp: “That’s our horse right there. You win with him, you lose with him.”
Kershaw struck out Oscar Tavares on three pitches, but then, for a second consecutive October, he lost a monumental battle with Carpenter. In last season’s NLCS, Carpenter beat him on 11 pitches. This time, he beat him on eight pitches, ripping a double off the right- center field wall to give the Cardinals a 7- 6 lead.
Now it was time for that dreaded Dodgers middle relief, and rookie converted third baseman Pedro Baez promptly walked Randal Grichuk and allowed a three- run home run to Matt Holliday to give the Cardinals a10- 6 lead they never lost.
“It’s a terrible feeling,” said Kershaw, who claimed hewasn’t fatigued. “As a starting pitcher, it’s your gameto lose, and I did that.”
Before these playoffs began, because of the Dodgers bullpen inconsistencies, itwas believed that Kershaw would have to have an Orel Hershiser- type October for the Dodgers to win a world championship. So far, that’s not happening, not this postseason, and not in Kershaw’s career.
In1988, Hershiser gave up five earned runs in six games. O nFriday, Kershaw allowed eight runs in 62⁄ innings, and nowhas a 5.20 postseason ERA. Despite his wondrous regular seasons, his legacy will continue to hang in the crooked frame of some awful October moments.
Even for Cy Young, it’s getting old.