Clayton Kershaw Shuts Down Mets; Dodgers Force Game 5

Winning when he couldn’t afford to lose, that was the problem.

Utley received a two-game suspension after his hard slide into second base to break up a double play during Game 2 of the best-of-five National League Division Series on Saturday night resulted in New York Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada suffering a fractured leg. It would show that over his seven innings, he allowed one run on three hits and one walk, with eight strikeouts.

Tuesday night’s Dodgers vs. Mets Game 4 has a scheduled start time of 8:07 p.m. Eastern Time.

The Citi Field faithful arrived 44,183 strong, but unlike Monday – when they brashly berated villain du jour Chase Utley and the rest of the Dodgers in a 13-7 New York victory – they seemed more apprehensive from the start. “Probably if he’d want one pitch back, it’s probably the hanging slider he threw Kershaw”.

There has been a lot of excitement for Mets fans as of late.

But Mattingly was not willing to push Kershaw, who threw 94 pitches, past seven innings and perhaps tempted fate by going to his bullpen in the eighth inning.

The Mets built their $100 million team around their young starters, and while they would have loved to wrap the series up behind Steven Matz on Tuesday, they’re fine counting on deGrom on Thursday.

“I’m actually really happy for him”. “I mean, yeah, it was frustrating to give up a hit like that”. “Obviously you want to get into the postseason”. Both are 1-0 in this series, although Greinke wasn’t as overpowering in Game 2 as deGrom was in Game 1.

Such is the circumstances for Los Angeles that they are having to send Kershaw out on only three days rest, but for LA manager Don Mattingly it was a no-brainer to send his star man out for today’s game.

With the season on the line, Clayton Kershaw shut down the Mets lineup.

“There’s no curse or anything”, he said. “I just got in the auto and drove for a little bit”.

One ace helped the Dodgers stave off elimination against the Mets. Besides that, he was in near-complete command of his surroundings in front of a raucous and, at times, desperate Citi Field crowd. “That will kind of be in my mind and I’ll go out there and just try to put up zeros”. (I’ve begun to wish the score had been closer, because a laugher always takes the losing batters off the hook: that wasn’t us, that was the ol’ law of averages.) Ah, well, let’s take Granderson’s gentle smile as a badge or emblem just now, while we get ready for Clayton Kershaw again, and a more silent, more edgy evening.

He is 2-2 with a 2.63 ERA and three home runs in five career starts with six days’ or more rest. All New York has to do now: beat the Dodgers’ other ace, Zack Greinke, in Los Angeles. The 22-year old rookie hammered a laser off arguably the best pitcher in baseball in his very first postseason at-bat. Still, he looked sharp early and snapped off several effective curveballs. The two teams were battling for home-field advantage in the final weekend of the season, and the Dodgers will be reaping the benefits from that in Game 5 on Thursday.

More pivotal at-bats from pitchers could be coming, too. A team that had an 11 game hitting streak in April dropped below. With two outs, Howie Kendrick grounded a single up the middle and Gonzalez dumped an RBI single into center.

Cueto has always been considered one of the game’s dynamic pitchers, his herky-jerky style often giving hitters fits. “We thought he’d be a great utility player”. A Daniel Murphy solo shot had given the Mets their lone run in the fourth.

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

“Obviously we wanted to get it done tonight for our fans and for their support all year”, Mets outfielder Michael Conforto said. Cueto is 0-2 with a 5.52 ERA in four postseason starts, including a pedestrian outing in Game 2 against Houston.

Wood, acquired July 30 from Atlanta, went 12-12 with a 3.84 ERA for the Braves and Dodgers this season.