Degrom outduels Kershaw with 13 Ks; Mets defeat Dodgers 3-1
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LOS ANGELES — Jacob deGrom struck out 13 over seven scoreless innings in his postseason debut and Daniel Murphy homered off a star-crossed Clayton Kershaw to help the New York Mets defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-1 on Friday night for a 1-0 lead in their NL Division Series.
Degrom (1-0) limited the Dodgers to five hits and walked one. The right-hander’s strikeouts tied the franchise playoff record set by Tom Seaver in Game 1 of the 1973 NL Championship Series.
Kershaw (0-1) endured his fifth straight postseason loss after giving up the seventh playoff homer of his career. Last season’s NL MVP allowed three runs and four hits in 6 2-3 innings, struck out 11 and walked four.
Three of those walks came in the seventh, before Mets captain David Wright had a two-out, two-run single off Pedro Baez that put New York up 3-0.
“It’s been nine years since I felt this,” Wright said.
Runs will likely again be at a premium when the Dodgers try to even the series Saturday night in Game 2. They start major league ERA leader Zack Greinke against Noah Synder- gaard of the Mets.
With a game-time temperature of 92 degrees, both pitchers came out throwing heat. Kershaw, the major league strikeout leader with 301 in the regular season, retired six of his first nine batters. Degrom, last year’s NL rookie of the year, struck out two batters in each of his first four innings.
Degrom became the first Mets pitcher with 10 or more strikeouts in the playoffs since Dwight Gooden in Game 1 of the 1988 NLCS at Dodger Stadium. Degrom retired his final 11 batters, subduing the white towel-waving crowd of 54,428.
Jeurys Familia got four outs to earn the save.