All Ball Sports: Dodgers: Happy Trails to Clayton Kershaw
by Paul Teetor
Dodgers Stadium felt like the place to be Saturday night. It was sold out for the first home game of the postseason, an 80-degree day was transitioning into a perfect LA night, and Clayton Kershaw was on the mound for the home team.
It doesn’t get any better than that for a baseball fan, casual or hard core. Memories were going to be made tonight. Good memories.
Then the game started and it all went bad.
It was obvious from the first pitch that Kershaw just didn’t have it. He reared back to throw a fastball, put his whole body into it, and the radar gun said 88 miles per hour, well below his in-his-prime 95 mph.
Uh oh.
Even an unskilled baseball eye could see that there was trouble, dead ahead.
Don’t get me wrong: Kershaw is an all-time great who not-so-long-ago was the most dominant pitcher in all of baseball. But he’s 35 years old now and sometimes has his good stuff and sometimes does not.
This was clearly a “does not” night.
Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts has been around Kershaw long enough to recognize when he doesn’t have his good stuff. But he did nothing, absolutely nothing, but sit and watch Kershaw unravel while throwing away any chance the Dodgers had at winning the all-important first game of the best three-out-of-five National League Divisional series.
Of course, it wasn’t just Kershaw. All the Dodgers contributed to this nightmare loss.
On Kershaw’s second pitch of the game, Ketel Marte lined a frozen rope to dead center field that rookie outfielder James Outman badly misplayed. First, he broke in towards the infield, then he realized the ball was going over his head so he reversed course and broke back. At the last second he tried for a leaping catch that went awry and the ball clanged off the heel of his glove. It fell in for a double and the Diamondbacks were on their way.
Diamondbacks rookie sensation Corbin Carroll slapped an RBI single to center and Tommy Pham followed with another hit. Already by this early point it was obvious the only smart move was to get Kershaw out of there and let someone else have a chance before things got completely out of hand.
After all, Roberts knows better than anybody that Kershaw has a long record of being great in the regular season, not so great in the postseason.
But Roberts didn’t look up from the roster card he was intensely studying as if it contained some secret answer to Kershaw’s woes.
Christian Walker fouled off a couple of two-strike pitches before lining an RBI double over David Peralta’s head in left.
It wasn’t just that the D-backs were getting hits. These were on the nose bombs that were being launched by batter after batter. And still Roberts did nothing.
Next batter up: Gabriel Moreno, who smoked another Kershaw hanging curveball that went 421 feet for a home run. That put the D-backs up 5-0 as the Stadium crowd looked on in despair and disbelief. There were even a few scattered boos aimed at the beloved Kershaw.
The home run finally woke Roberts from his stupor and he reluctantly replaced Kershaw with rookie fireballer Emmet Sheehan.
But Sheehan was little better, and soon it was 8-0, then 9-0 and then 11-2 for a final score. But long before the last out the Hollywood high rollers and the suburban families started filing out to beat the notorious post-game traffic.
How bad was Kershaw? So bad that it is unlikely that he appears again in this series. Indeed, the series – and his Dodgers career — could soon be over, considering that the Dodgers have to win three of the next four games starting with Monday night’s must-win second game at Dodgers Stadium.
If this indeed was Kershaw’s last appearance at Dodgers Stadium, it was a sad ending to a storied career. He may have to throw a few innings in relief if things get desperate, but it’s hard to see Roberts starting Kershaw again after this disaster.
Happy Trails to Clayton Kershaw: great in the regular season, not-so-great in the postseason.
Mira Costa: Same old story, but worse
In a season full of heartbreaking losses, this one was the cruelest of all.
That’s because the winless Mira Costa football team actually had a chance to beat undefeated Palos Verdes and pull off a huge upset, but missed a potentially game-winning field goal at the end of the game.
Nico De Sisto, who had been responsible for so much of the Mustang’s scoring this season, had a makeable 36-yard attempt but it drifted wide right and Costa had to swallow yet another brutal loss in front of a sorely disappointed home crowd at Waller Stadium.
A few feet the other way and the Mustangs and their fans could have been celebrating one of the biggest upsets in Bay League History long into the night.
Instead, it was yet another brutal loss to an undefeated team in a season full of brutal losses to undefeated teams.
Even worse, the loss sank the Mustangs record to 0-7 and 0-2 in the Bay League. Palos Verdes escaped with a 9-7 victory and remained undefeated at 7-0 overall and 2-0 in the Bay League. That is PV’s best start to a season since 2002.
“I’d say we played well enough to win and we have a lot to improve on,” PV quarterback Ryan Rakowski said. “We’ll look at the film and see what we can do better.”
Rakowski engineered a scoring drive on the Sea Kings first possession, scrambling to find Jacob Reis for a 23-yard gain that put PV on the Mustang 3-yard line before settling for a 36-yard field goal.
“The play broke down, so I just had to improvise,” Rakowski said. “Reis went up and made a play.”
PV took a 9-0 lead late in the first half after Rakowski and Sean Winbush connected for a 20-yard touchdown. The freshman quarterback scrambled after the pocket collapsed and eventually found Winbush.
The freshman sensation finished with 157 yards passing and a touchdown, while Luke Gayton picked up 126 yards on six catches. PV’s rushing attack was held to 54 yards.
Dylan Freebury had a chance to give PV a 12-0 lead with 6:05 to play in the fourth quarter, but his field goal attempt was short.
Mira Costa capitalized on its chance – but fell just short, once again.
After sitting out the Mustangs previous game with a shoulder injury, quarterback Nico De La Cruz was back as the starting quarterback. He connected with David Burga-Donovan for a 42-yard gain before finding Reese Leonard wide open over the middle for a 38-yard touchdown to make it a 9-7 game.
De La Cruz threw for 208 yards and a touchdown, while Leonard had 68 yards on four catches. Burga-Donovan added 84 yards on five catches.
“We knew PV was going to have a safety over, so we wanted to attack the seam on the left side,” De La Cruz said. “On Leonard’s catch, PV ran a blitz and I tried to put it only where Reese could get it. He made a great play and scored.”
Mira Costa was given one final opportunity after Leonard called for a fair catch and appeared to fumble the punt before the ball was called dead at the PV 35.
On two consecutive plays, Mattie Miller picked up 10 and 9 yards on the ground. That gave the Mustangs good field position for a game-winning field goal at the 16-yard line with less than 90 seconds to play.
But with almost the entire stadium standing and rooting for the ball to go through the goal posts the ball drifted wide right and the Mustangs tasted the sting of close-but-no-cigar defeat once again.
Friday night Costa will travel to Santa Monica to face a 6-1 team that will present yet another stiff challenge as the Mustangs fight desperately to get their first win.
Meanwhile, Redondo traveled to Culver City and absorbed a 27-14 defeat that dropped its record to 5-2 overall and 1-1 in the Bay League.
Next Friday Redondo travels to Palos Verdes for a showdown game that could determine the Bay League race. If PV wins, they are almost a lock for the league title. If Redondo wins, they will each have one league loss and figure to battle right till the end of the season for league supremacy.
Contact: teetor.paul@gmail.com
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