Clayton Kershaw has help from the Dodgers, which is terrifying

LOS ANGELES — Clayton Kershaw delivered one of the best performances of his career Tuesday night, striking out 11 Houston Astros to lead the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 3-1 win in Game 1 of the World Series.

Kershaw allowed one run in his seven innings against a Houston team that scored more runs than any team in MLB, a stacked lineup that is the best the Dodgers have seen this season.

“It was his masterpiece,” McCarthy said.

“This was a special night to Clayton,” manager Dave Roberts said.

Dodgers catcher Austin Barnes could see from the beginning of the game that Kershaw had the “good Clayton Kershaw slider” working, a pitch that pitcher Brandon McCarthy described as “vintage Kershaw” on Tuesday night.

Kershaw threw nearly as many sliders (33) as four-seam fastballs (40) in Game 1, per Brooks Baseball.

“He’s one of the most competitive people I’ve ever been around in my life. To see him out there tonight doing what he did to one of the best offense in baseball,” said third baseman Justin Turner. “It was incredible.”

“I don’t think there is a more competitive person than Clayton,” Barnes said. “When he’s got his stuff, he just kind of out-wills people.”

What separates this Dodgers season from previous years, and has them now three wins away from their first championship in 29 years, is the depth they have built around Kershaw.

Even with that legendary competitiveness, Kershaw was completely fine with coming out of the game after just 83 pitches in seven innings. In past years, he might have lobbied to stay in longer and, given the available options in those years, likely would have been obliged.

But not on Tuesday night.

“With our bullpen it doesn’t matter,” Kershaw told Tom Verducci on Fox after the game. “I told him I was good to go, but how can you argue with what B-Mo and Kenley are doing back there? They proved it tonight once again.”

B-Mo is Brandon Morrow, the main setup man to closer Kenley Jansen, the two biggest pieces in a Dodgers bullpen that has been dominant this postseason. Opposing batters hit just .194/.241/.213 against Morrow this season, and .177/.206/.270 against Jansen. In the postseason, those two have combined to hold batters to just 5-for-59 (.085) with 21 strikeouts and two walks.

In Game 1, they combined to retire all six batters they faced, extending the Dodgers bullpen’s MLB record of 25 consecutive scoreless innings in the postseason.

It wasn’t always this way.

From 2013-16, the first four years of the current run of five consecutive National League West division titles, the Dodgers bullpen in the playoffs had an ERA of 3.99.

This year, Dodgers relief pitchers have a cumulative 0.88 ERA, with 33 strikeouts, and just two walks 30⅔ innings. It’s easy to see why Roberts is so willing to trust this group late in the game.

The bulk of Kershaw’s playoff angst usually had to do with leaving him in games too long, thanks to a lack of better options than the Dodgers’ tiring ace. There was the shocking six-run seventh inning in Game 1 of the 2014 NLDS, the three-run home run to Matt Adams in Game 4 of that same series, walking the bases loaded in Game 1 of the 2015 NLDS, then the three-run seventh inning of Game 4 of the 2016 NLDS, to name a few.

Since the start of 2013, Kershaw has started 16 playoff games. In the first six innings of those games, his ERA is 2.67, but in the seventh inning it is 22.74, thanks in large part to those games listed above. Of his 16 runs allowed in those seventh innings, six scored against a relief pitcher after Kershaw left the game.

On Tuesday night, that seventh inning ERA was 0.00.

Those last four division titles for the Dodgers also had another thing in common in October: Kershaw pitching on short rest in the opening round. He did well in those four starts — a 3.16 ERA, with 34 strikeouts and six walks — but it added extra miles to the odometer each season.

In 2017, the Dodgers’ fourth starter is Alex Wood, who posted a 2.72 ERA this year while making his first All-Star Game and winning 16 games. The point is, the Dodgers have other options, so they don’t need to overly rely on Kershaw.

So far this postseason, Kershaw’s starts have come on five, seven, four and four days rest. He is 3-0 with a 2.96 ERA with 27 strikeouts and five walks in 24 innings.

The Dodgers have won all four starts, and are just three wins away from their first World Series championship since 1988.

“There’s so many contributions from so many different guys. It just goes back to caring about each other,” Kershaw said. “Not to say that other teams that I played on didn’t, it just seems like this one, there is something a little bit different that I can’t put my finger on, but I’m glad to be a part of it.”