Madison Bumgarner: Bumgarner outdueled by Kershaw in a loss

Jake Arrieta, Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw have been by far the top three pitchers in the NL. In fact, the Dodgers have not made the World Series since winning it way back in 1988.

The Los Angeles Dodgers clinched the National League West title for the third season in a row on Tuesday night with a 8-0 win over the San Francisco Giants.

After Brown grounded to third for the inning’s first out, De Aza hit a fly ball plenty deep into left field off Dodgers left-hander Adam Liberatore to give the Giants their third straight win. “This is a total organizational thing”.

Kershaw allowed just a third-inning single and struck out 13, and now he’ll get a chance to erase those sour postseason memories as the Dodgers (88-69) advanced to face the NL East champion New York Mets in a best-of-five Division Series. While Toronto and Kansas City have all but wrapped up their division titles, the race for the AL wild card may come down to the last game of the season.

If the Dodgers sew up the NL West before Kershaw’s last scheduled start of the year (the regular-season finale in San Diego), that number may be harder to hit simply because the game would turn into more of a short tune-up for Kershaw before the NLDS.

And with that, the Giants’ defense of the 2014 World Series ended – not with fireworks but with the tiresome thud of a doctor’s clipboard. The club has won titles in 2010, “12 and ’14, and then failed to make the playoffs the following season each time”.

Fans had a chance to take selfies with all four trophies, which the Giants planted on the first-base side of the concourse level during the game.

“Four, concussions, three obliques and here we are on September 29. I think we should be proud of that”. He retired the final 19 batters. “I know what that feels like”. They could enter the series clinging to a 2 game lead and trying to avoid one of the worst collapses in recent memory to the team that it would hurt the most. “We might have clinched the division, but they still are in a better spot than we are”. In his last 15 starts, Kershaw has registered an phenomenal 1.35 ERA. The outing took him past 200 innings in a season for the seventh time in his career and past 200 strikeouts for the fourth time. He’s never recorded a 300-strikeout season.

“I was getting the first guy out of every inning, which was really helpful”. Thirteen pitches. What pitcher works a count that long? Choo also had a two-run homer in the first. “And Clayton was throwing zeroes”.

The struggling Dodger offense broke out in a big way against Madison Bumgarner, knocking him out of the game in the sixth inning after three homers gave the visitors a 4-0 lead.

How it happened The main hit off Kershaw was Kevin Frandsen’s circling line drive to right field in the third inning. He allowed one run on five hits, walked two and struck out four. “It’s not a good feeling”, Bumgarner said. Our rookies have battitude or rookie pop, or whatever you want to call it. Our future is so bright, it’s downright brilliant.

The Royals, who have lost four of their last five, fell behind 3-0 after Adam Eaton drove a two-run homer into the bullpen in right field off Cueto (10-13) in the fifth inning. The Giants hopes are slim, yet they are in a ideal position to put the heat on the Dodgers with a sweep in this 3 game set.

Manager Bruce Bochy gathered his players after the 8-0 Kershaw-killing and dropped the P-word a few times.