By Yours Truly
http://throneberryfields.com/2017/10/24/kershaw-to-astros-sorry-wrong-number/If you’re looking for perspective with the World Series underway, you could always begin with this. No
pitcher struck out as many as eleven Astros in a game on the regular season. Until they ran into Clayton
Kershaw in Game One.
For that matter, no pitcher in Dodger silks had struck out ten or more in any World Series game since
Game Seven of the 1965 World Series—a fellow named Sandy Koufax, who struck out fifteen Twins
that day—until Kershaw punched out his eleven Tuesday night.
Until Chris Taylor watched Dallas Keuchel throw him a fastball practically down the pipe to open the bottom
of the first, only three men prior to him ever led off their team’s first World Series inning with a home run.
Make room, Don Buford (1969 Orioles), Dustin Pedroia (2007 Red Sox), and Alcides Escobar (2015 Royals).
Did we mention that until Justin Turner took Keuchel out for a pair that only one Dodger prior to him had
ever compiled 26 postseason runs batted in? Nice to meet you, too, Duke Snider.
Oh, and by the way. That
was Kershaw you saw going out to pitch the seventh. The inning that’s been his
personal revival of
Sorry, Wrong Number for more postseasons than he probably cares to remember. But
Monday night, with a little help from back-to-back force outs and a fly out to center, he finally convinced
the coppers there really was a murderer to stop.
Astros third baseman Alex Bregman must be feeling left out. Tying the game off Kershaw in the fourth
with a leadoff bomb put him . . . nowhere into his team’s or the Show’s record books. It just gave the
Astros a momentary ray of hope on a night Kershaw was somewhere above and beyond even his best.
Kershaw tied Don Newcombe’s Dodgers team record for strikeouts without a walk in a single World Series
game. Yet he stood alone as a Dodger and in the Show for punching out the most while surrendering
three hits or less. But if you ask him what things like that meant Monday night, he’ll tell you what he told
ESPN’s Buster Olney postgame: “It means 1-0.”
It also meant that, other than Bregman and Jose Altuve, only Josh Reddick collected a hit. George Springer,
Carlos Correa, Yuli Gurriel, Brian McCann, and Marwin Gonzalez went a collective 0-for-24 to open the
Series. Springer was four times a Kershaw K; Gurriel twice; Altuve, Correa, Gonzalez, and Reddick, once
apiece. Keuchel also struck out twice while he was at it.
Keuchel wasn’t even close to terrible on the mound. His overall command was exceptional and, in between
Taylor and Turner, he was almost as frustrating for the Dodgers as Kershaw was for the Astros. On any
other night, a six-hit, one-walk performance would have been good enough for him to win.
Keuchel used his defense a little more frequently, but that’s not exactly unheard of from him. A Keuchel
game without at least one double play sometimes seems anomalous. The Astros turning two on the Dodgers
Monday night seemed just about right when the cool lefthander is on the mound.
But he wasn’t Kershaw. And he knows it.
“It was a good atmosphere; it was as fun as I had imagined,” said the lefthander whose long, squared beard
and playful face make him resemble a friendly lumberjack ready to offer a wandering, lost house guest a fresh
pot of coffee.
“Taylor hit a first-pitch four-seamer out of the yard, kind of hit us in the jaw,” Keuchel continued. "We recovered
nicely. I knew we would scratch a run, maybe two, off of Kershaw. But he was as good as advertised. It was
one pitch away from being 1-1 going into the seventh.”
Throwing Taylor something creamy enough to drive three fourths of the way up the left field bleachers was a
horrible way to spoil the first World Series pitch of Keuchel’s life. Throwing Turner a two-out, one aboard, 1-2
breaking ball that broke only enough to arrive belt high, something Turner could have driven just a sliver over
the left field fence in his sleep, meant a two-bomb start for Keuchel for the first time since early May.
“We knew he liked to get ahead early,” said Taylor, who also wrung Keuchel for a walk before Turner teed off.
“He does a really good job of picking at the corners and throws a lot of chase pitches. But I just wanted to go
up there and be aggressive and try to jump on that first-pitch strike.” Jump on it? He practically scared it out.
“Keuchel has good stuff,” said Turner after the game. “And he locates. He doesn’t make very many mistakes.”
These Dodgers learn fast never to look a gift horse in the mouth.
“With Turner, you feel like you can get into the at-bat a little bit, but he never concedes,” said Astros manager
A.J. Hinch. “We know he’s going to be a tough out. The guy in front of him is a tough out. And you’ve just got
to make pitches.”
Whether the Dodgers believe in good luck charms as much as spoiling the other guy’s rare mistakes might be
another question altogether. But the sight of franchise icon Rachel Robinson, the 95-year-old-widow of Jackie
Robinson, tossing out a ceremonial first pitch with their son, David, throwing one next to her, must have given
them something more than the smiles, the hugs, and the continuing respect she’s been shown since her
husband’s death—45 years to the day before Game One.
Three other Dodger icons were also in the house—Koufax, longtime broadcaster Vin Scully, and the man who
managed them to their last World Series triumph, Tommy Lasorda. None to anyone’s knowledge were seen
holding or sticking pins into Astro voodoo dolls.
Koufax, of course, predicted the Dodgers would get to the World Series after they swept the Diamondbacks in
the division series. ”Yeah,he is in our corner. He’s rooting for us,” said Kershaw, who had a postgame chat with
the Hall of Famer. “I’ve said it a million times, but he’s a special guy. Not too many guys can have that pedigree
and be the kind of man he is. And thankful that I’ve gotten to hang out with him for a little while.”
And there wasn’t one fan in the house who even thought about making for the exits until Dodger closer Kenley
Jansen finished taking care of business in the ninth. ”They didn’t come late and leave early tonight,” Kershaw
almost crowed.
He had a right to crow a little. This time, he didn’t have to pitch on short rest. This time, he didn’t have a
catcher signaling him to throw one down the pipe to a guy who could and did turn it into an ICBM. This time,
he wasn’t forced to stay beyond his fuel tank capacity because a Dodger bullpen was a squad of arsonists.
This time, Kershaw had all the room on the planet to tell the other guys, “Sorry, wrong number.”
Two eras of Dodger virtuosi: Kershaw gets a postgame
attaboy and chat with Sandy Koufax-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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