LOS ANGELES (News4usonline) – Clayton Kershaw put on his game face and went out and shut down the vaunted New York Yankees offense. No longer the ace of the Los Angeles Dodgers pitching staff, Kershaw showed a whole lot of people, including the Yankees, that he can still yield the power to be a dominant pitcher.
Even if it is for one night. Coming into the three-game series against the Yankees at Dodger Stadium, Kershaw sported an unimpressive record of 6-4. Even more pedestrian has been Kershaw’s ERA, which was sitting at 3.32. Yeah, very ordinary pitching stats for a future Hall of Famer.
Against the Yankees in the first of the three games to be played in Los Angeles, Kershaw flexed and New York’s smorgasbord of devastating hitters blinked. Kershaw pitched seven innings and struck out nine New York batters in the Dodgers’ 8-4 win on June 2. Kershaw gave up just four hits to the Yankees.
His best performance of the evening was striking out New York slugger Aaron Judge twice and getting the baseball superstar into grounding out into a double-play in his first at-bat. Looking at Kershaw blow smoke past some of the best hitters in the game today was something that the Dodgers pitched used to do routinely.
Those efforts come and go less frequently now that Kershaw is probably on the verge of retirement. Kershaw showed why he became one of the best pitchers of his genre. But he had plenty of help to back him up.
Outfielder Mookie Betts, who belted out two home runs in the game, got the hit parade started for the Dodgers with a solo home run in his first at-bat.
It was downhill for the Yankees and their starting pitcher Louis Servino from there. The Dodgers tagged Servino for nine hits through four innings and three home runs. In all, the Dodgers produced 13 hits in the game.
Most of those hits came in the first inning when the Dodgers scored six runs. Third baseman Max Muncy got in on the action with a two-run home run in the Dodgers’ half of the first inning. J.D. Martinez (bottom third inning) was the third Dodger to homer in the game.
The only blemish that Kershaw had was the two solo home runs he served up to Giancarlo Stanton and Josh Donaldson. Outside of that little nugget, the Yankees struggled offensively.
The bats of the Dodgers came alive in the first game. Will the Yankees follow suit over the next two games? Will their big bats show up to the party? If not, the Dodgers got next.
Dennis has covered and written about politics, crime, social justice, sports, and entertainment. Dennis currently covers the NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA, and Olympic sports. Dennis is the editor of News4usonline.com and serves as the publisher of the Compton Bulletin newspaper. He earned a journalism degree from Howard University.