Terry Collins: Game 5 is ‘gravy’ after successful season

The only knocks on Kershaw to date have surrounded a couple of subpar performances in postseason outings. Once he was pulled, Bartolo Colon, Tyler Clippard, and Jeurys Familia pitched four innings of one-hit, shutout ball.

The Mets lead the series two games to one after their 13-7 Game 3 win Monday night at Citi Field.

Mattingly said, “Kershaw. Do you have to explain that one?”

“As good as Zack is and has been the whole year, deGrom has been the same”, Kershaw said.

Briefly: Former A’s closer Jim Johnson was designated for assignment by the Dodgers, who claimed pitcher Brooks Brown on waivers from the Rockies.

When he was asked about the comfort of having Zack Greinke start a winner-take-all Game 5 against the Mets Thursday night, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly answered with caution about such a crapshoot: “Anything can happen, honestly”. Greinke did face the Mets earlier this season, getting the ball in Game 2. “Now we’ve moved past it, and you got to get ready to play”. “Jacob threw a great game out there the last time”.

This game will be a real pitchers duel with runs hard to come by with two outstanding pitchers and throw in the shadows of twilight in the City of Angels. 287 with 21 home runs, 79 RBIs, 82 runs, 34 doubles and one triple.

At the beginning of August, the Mets ranked fifteenth in the National League in hitting, which isn’t ideal in a 15-team league; they proceeded to pace the National League in most offensive categories after the non-waiver trade deadline on July 31. You just don’t know. Yesterday, road teams-first the Rangers, then the Astros-went 0-2 in their deciding Game 5 matchups. Utley originally was suspended for Games 3 and 4, but he appealed and is eligible to play in the remaining games of the series or until he has the hearing.

Ellis said Kershaw seemed a little too amped up early in Game 4, when his fastball was a little faster than usual but his curveball wasn’t as crisp. Their own starter, rookie lefty Steven Matz – who grew up on Long Island and had but six major league starts to his name – did just fine, other than the third inning, when he allowed Kershaw to start a rally with a one-out single and Adrian Gonzalez and Justin Turner to finish it with two-out, run-scoring hits.

Short rest has never been the issue for Clayton Kershaw in October.

“We said in order to win this, we’re going to have to beat Clayton Kershaw twice or Zach Greinke twice and that’s a big order”, Collins said.

Kershaw, 27, is 114-56 with a 2.43 ERA in the regular season, with three Cy Young Awards and an MVP since 2011.

He was a Cy Young candidate again this year, although he’ll likely finish third in the voting behind Jake Arrieta of the Chicago Cubs and Greinke. Greinke won Game 2, allowing two runs and five hits with eight strikeouts over seven innings. Sirius XM Satellite Radio subscribers can hear live audio commentary for the game via channel 209 for the Mets or channel 212 for the Dodgers.

“He’s just very impressive, you know, just very tough to square up. You don’t really feel exhausted or anything like that”, Kershaw said.

DeGrom was the victor in Game 1.

Chase Utley hasn’t seen the field since his controversial slide in Game 2, but he’ll be available for Thursday’s elimination game, despite his suspension. So, expect shadows to be a problem for batters with a 5:07 pm local time start.

The only game that was decided by more than three runs was game 3, when Dodgers pitcher Brett Anderson pitched just three innings.