LOS ANGELES — It was over but for the formalities when Clayton Kershaw took to the mound in the top of the seventh here, the mountains beyond the outfield wall peeking into Dodger Stadium so they could witness the last little bit of brilliance. In between a pair of St. Louis Cardinals homers — flukes, they were, flukes — Kershaw had retired 16 straight. His greatest distraction: the chants of “MVP! MVP!” the Los Angeles faithful had dropped on him all day, from the time he walked out for his pregame bullpen to the time he took the mound for the first pitch to the time he came to bat. Bow down, for he is present.
The Cardinals, though, care little about formalities and adulation, and they are one of the few teams that wouldn’t just roll over for Kershaw and his golden left arm. So in the shadow of Hollywood, Game 1 of this National League Division Series went against script, and hard. Get us all a rewrite, because there are tenor-setting turnarounds in series, and there are the jaw-to-the-floor moments that defy both precedent and what the eye tells you — even as it is happening right there, right in front of you.
Kershaw’s line when he took the mound in the seventh: six innings pitched, two hits, two runs (both earned), no walks and eight strikeouts, streaks of dominance marred only by solo homers from rookie Randal Grichuk in the first and Matt Carpenter in the sixth. Kershaw’s line, by the end of an absolutely astonishing seventh: 62/ 3 innings, eight hits, eight runs (all earned), no walks and 10 strikeouts. The Cardinals, down 6-2 and flailing, came back in a way that made them suddenly feel in command in the series, a 10-9 victory punctuated by Carpenter’s go-ahead, two-out, bases-loaded double on the 110th pitch of Kershaw’s afternoon.
MVP? Sure, maybe. Even probably. But that discussion isn’t pertinent in October. For two hours, it seemed as if Kershaw would rewrite the misery of his last autumn start, a 9-0 clobbering at the hands of the Cardinals in Game 6 of the 2013 NLCS. Instead, he just compounded it, and in doing so gave the Dodgers more to worry about than just being down a game. The concern: What if the best pitcher on the planet has a team against which he can’t compete?
The last time Kershaw (2014 ERA: 1.77; career ERA: 2.48) gave up eight runs in a single start: July 24, 2012 – at St. Louis. In 14 regular season starts against the Cardinals in his career, his ERA is just 3.46. Add in the postseason, and it balloons to 4.11 – more than a run-and-a-half more than he has allowed over the course of his career.
St. Louis catcher Yadier Molina, left, and relief pitcher Trevor Rosenthal embrace after a come-from-behind victory on the road in Game 1. (Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press)
This season, Kershaw allowed six or fewer hits in 17 of his 27 starts. Friday, the Cardinals rapped out six hits against him in the seventh alone, a peck-peck-peck of an attack that seemed harmless enough until the pain was overwhelming. Carpenter’s double came on the eighth pitch of his at-bat, a 95-mph fastball, but it was preceded by five singles. They are the Cardinals, and they don’t care how they do it, as long as they get it done.
So throw out all the odes to Kershaw and his adversary Friday, Cardinals right-hander Adam Wainwright, selected by St. Louis Manager Mike Matheny as the National League’s all-star starter over Kershaw. Had Kershaw not unexpectedly and inexplicably imploded, Wainwright would have been cast as the stud who couldn’t keep up, who folded. The Dodgers raked against Wainwright, who gave up more hits (11) in fewer innings (41/ 3) than he ever had, the last a two-run bomb to catcher A.J. Ellis (2014 average: .191) that drove him from the game in the fifth, trailing 6-1.
In between all this, the tone of this series may have been established. In the top of the third inning, in a game the Cardinals led, 1-0, Wainwright ran a 1-1 sinker up-and-in on Dodgers center fielder Yasiel Puig. Puig, it is clear, could accurately be characterized as an excitable sort. Yet Puig did nothing, really, other than walk to first base.
Yet this is where history matters, and why it could play into the rest of the series. Last year, these two teams met in the National League Championship Series, a series in which Cardinals lefty Joe Kelly (since traded to Boston) plunked Dodgers shortstop Hanley Ramirez in the ribs. Ramirez missed only one of the six games in the series, but he appeared compromised, going just 2 for 15 as St. Louis won the pennant.
Then, in a three-game July series in St. Louis, Kelly hit Puig in the left hand, and Puig sat out four straight games. In the series finale, relievers Carlos Martinez and Trevor Rosenthal – each of whom throws nearly 100 mph – nailed Ramirez.
So this, from Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez afterward: “One thing is pitching inside,” Gonzalez told reporters that July night. “Another thing is pitching inside carelessly. They’ve shown they don’t care if they hit him. It’s not on purpose, but they don’t care if they hit him.
“They hit Hanley last year. They hit Puig yesterday. They hit Hanley twice today. It’s almost like, ‘Hey, we’re going to throw inside. If we hit you, oh well.’ Guys like that, it comes to a point where it’s enough.”
A Dodgers fan reacts after watching his team give up a four-run lead in the sixth inning to lose, 10-9. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
When Puig was hit Friday, Gonzalez was next to the plate, and before Wainwright toed the rubber again, he and Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina were face to face, chest to chest. Here came the benches. Here came the bullpens. Here came a story line going forward. Will this issue come up again, as the series turns to Zack Greinke and Lance Lynn in Saturday’s Game 2, then heads to St. Louis? Given that it’s lasted this long, it’s hard to imagine it won’t.
But with their ace going off-script, the Dodgers have other matters to worry about, the gravest kind. The advantage they have over every team in baseball is Kershaw. Every team, it seems, except the Cardinals.
Barry Svrluga is the national baseball writer for The Washington Post.
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