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Crafty veteran lefty Clayton Kershaw mows down the American League champion Tampa Bay Rays

By Arnie Leshin
Future baseball Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw  is on the brink of accomplishing something that hasn’t yet filled his list of pitching achievements.
Following Sunday night‘s glittering six and two-third innings that brought his Los Angeles Dodgers a 4-2 win and a game away from claiming their first Major League World Series since 1988. And that’s what the 32-year-old southpaw who grew up at nearby Dallas, for this neutral ballpark — Globe Life Field in Arlington, Tex., — is where this champion will emerge from as Los Angeles is up 3-2 in the best-of-seven of this shortened season.
Forget his 13-12 postseason record as he now looms nearer his initial World Series championship. He ignores the criticism they dig up and just keeps throwing those dandy curves, those fastballs that catch corners, and sometimes change ups and sliders. He often surprises batters, who often walk away shaking their heads.
He’s now 4-1 in these playoffs, and he just disposed of the American League champion Tampa Bay Rays for the second time. He shut them down on two runs and five hits while striking out six and walking two. In this World Series, the crafty lefty with the scraggly dark brown hair is now 2-0 with a 2.31 ERA in 15 and two-third frames over a pair of starts, and has fanned 14 and issued three base on balls.
In the regular season, he is 175-76 with five ERA titles and as a Most Valuable Player. He’s been an All-Star, and no matter how many negatives they might throw at him, he no doubt ranks alongside franchise elites Sandy Koufax, Fernando Valenzuela and Orel Hershiser, a trio who have hurled in LA after there from Brooklyn in 1957, Koufax, though, won all his masterpiece games on the West Coast.
In the sixth, LA manager Dave Roberts strolled to the mound, gave his ace a pat on the butt, and brought in Dustin May after Kershaw got two outs on two pitches, and a pandemic-reduced allowed turnout of 11,427, mostly pro Dodger fans, brought on the applause.
Today is an off day, the second one of all these postseason games, and Tuesday will bring game six, a must-win for the Rays and perhaps a sixth World Series for the Dodgers in Los Angeles (won only one in Brooklyn, 1955). Thirty of the previous 46 teams to win game 5 for a 3-2 lead have won the title, but only six of the last 14. Teams that wasted 3-2 advantages include last year’s Houston Astros.
Kershaw has won World Series openers in 2017 and again this year, but he faltered in game 5 in both 2017 and 2018, and thus has never won this National Pastime’s most prestigious title.
The Los Angeles hit parade was powered by two-run home runs from right fielder MookieBetts and shortstop Corey Seager, both in the first frame, and Joc Pederson and Max Muncy homered off long-ball prone Tyler Glasnow, with his 100 mph heat not a problem.
When Kershaw arrived back in his dugout, he padded his glove, checked the laces, got pats from his teammates, a hug from Roberts wearing a face mask, and just looked up to watch his bullpen of May, Victor Gonzalez and Blake Theinen combine for two-hit pitching. May, sporting a probably copy-cat red scraggly bread, got five outs, Gonzalez stranded two runners in the eighth by retiring red-hot rookie Randy Arozarena and Brandon Loweon flyouts, and tall Theinen closed this one down with three outs for the save, two on strikeouts.
“Kersh,” said Theinen, “deserves a lot of the credit for what we’ve been able to do in this World Series. There’s a tough narrative on him. He’s a phenomenal pitcher on the biggest stage.”
It was Kershaw’s second time beating Tampa Bay for the second time in six days, and included escaping a fourth inning jam with a quick reaction throw to cut down Manuel Margot on an attempt to steal home. It was first baseman Muncy on top of the play sprinting towards Kershaw and calling out, “Home, home, home.” Muncy said he figured it out when he saw one or two guys break hard, and knew what to expect.
In the last of the ninth (Rays were home team), Margo led off with a single, but Austin Meadows struck out, Joey Wendle flied out and Willy Adames whiffed as Theinen applied the heat.
Tampa Bay is now in its second World Series, the first in 1998 that was a loss in five to the Philadelphia Phillies, but has yet to win one. But it’s not over until it’s over (did Yogi really say that?), and so these Rays remain in the hunt and will send lefthander Blake Snell, the game 2 winner, to the hill Tuesday night (FOX network at 6:08), but Roberts hasn’t made his choice yet . But if there’s a game 7,his righthander Walker Buehler will be ready to take the mound. But the Rays aren’t looking ahead, it’s game 6 the hurdle now.
When the former Devil Rays were in that World Series, present manager Kevin Cash was its catcher.

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