BOSTON — The comparison was not a favorable one for Clayton Kershaw at this point – the 37-year-old left-hander relying on guts and guile to get major-league hitters out against the newer-model dominant left-hander, Garrett Crochet.
Of all the things time has eroded from Kershaw’s arsenal, his ability to finish off hitters has been one of the most noticeable. He gave up six hits Saturday. Five of them came with two strikes on the batter. Meanwhile, Crochet struck out 10 in six innings as the Dodgers lost to the Boston Red Sox, 4-2, Saturday night.
Kershaw struck out just two – the second 3,000 harder to come by than the first – despite getting two strikes on 13 of the 21 batters he faced in 4⅔ innings. He got only six swings-and-misses on 91 pitches.
“I think there’s something to that,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Kershaw’s difficulty putting hitters away at times this season. “At times he’s been using his curveball, getting swing and miss. The slider just hasn’t had that last bit of depth for the two-strike miss, where there’s been some balls in play.
“But yeah, right now I think when he is good and pounding the strike zone, he’s getting quick outs. But the strikeouts, where normally he’s getting those when he gets two strikes and gets in good counts, it happens. But yeah, it’s been tougher to come by, I think this year.”
Trevor Story, Carlos Narvaez, Jarren Duran and Abraham Toro were four of those two-strike hitters in the second inning. But Story drew a leadoff walk, Narvaez doubled off the Green Monster and Duran tripled to the wall in center field to drive in two runs. Toro’s sacrifice fly made it a three-run inning.
“The second inning was just kind of generally not what I needed it to be,” Kershaw said. “Having a tough time with a lot of different things. But honestly, after that, the third, fourth, even the fifth, even though I gave up that run, I felt pretty solid with everything.
“But (it) could have been a super frustrating day, and now it’s only mildly frustrating. Just that that’s still in there. I can still get people out. It’s just that second inning got to me.”
That inning was enough to undo a powerful start by the Dodgers against Crochet.
Shohei Ohtani hit Crochet’s third pitch of the game 414 feet to straightaway center field over the high wall there for a home run, his 38th of the season and sixth in the past seven games. Two batters later, Teoscar Hernandez lofted a fly ball into the Monster seats for a solo home run – his 16th homer and 48th RBI in 47 career games at Fenway Park.
“You know, when you’re facing guys like Crochet, you don’t get so many good pitches to hit,” Hernandez said. “The ones that you do, you just have to put it in play and hopefully you can get good contact, do some damage, like we did in the first inning. After that, he was throwing the ball very good. He didn’t miss many pitches in the strike zone after that. He’s having a great year, and today it was a good game.”
Crochet gave up back-to-back singles to Freddie Freeman and Andy Pages after Hernandez’s homer. But Freeman made the first of a few bad baserunning decisions by the Dodgers when he tried to go from first to third. Worse for the Dodgers, they chased his bad decision by challenging the call. When the call was unchanged by replay review, the Dodgers were unable to challenge again in the game.
“I thought I got my foot in there,” Freeman said. “Looking back, it was just a perfect throw. With how shallow they play in left field, that was what we talked about before the series – try to get to third on certain balls. I saw a bobble, and I was running as hard as I could to second, so I thought I could keep going.
“If it happens again tomorrow, I’ll do the same thing.”
That was the first of three outs the Dodgers ran into on the bases Saturday. Hernandez was caught stealing to end the fifth inning. Will Smith was out trying to stretch a hit into a double to end the seventh.
You have to take those chances against a pitcher like Crochet, Roberts said.
“You do. If you try to play it straight and try to collect a bunch of hits, it’s just not going to happen,” Roberts said.
Using their challenge in the first inning also might have cost the Dodgers. Smith’s play was close enough to possibly prompt a challenge.
“There were a couple other close plays. But I think that in that situation, with one out, if he is safe, then it’s worth that challenge,” Roberts said. “We thought it was close enough to be worth it. I don’t know how the game’s going to play out, but to use a challenge in the first inning, you look back and it sort of bit us late.”
Like in the fifth inning.
Alex Bregman fell behind 1-and-2 with two outs but fouled off five pitches from Kershaw and then dribbled an infield single up the third-base line. He scored from first on a double by Roman Anthony – a close enough play at the plate that the Dodgers might have challenged.
“He got two outs in that fifth inning and the Bregman at-bat is the one that sort of got him and taxed him a little bit more,” Roberts said. “Then we got victim of The Monster. Anthony hit a good fly ball but The Monster got it.”
That was the end of Kershaw’s night, and he was cheered as he left the field following his first (and likely last) regular-season start at Fenway Park.
“It’s obviously a cool ballpark. It’s fun to come to Fenway. Crowds have been awesome. Dodgers fans traveled really well here. So it’s been fun to be here. But I’m good to leave too,” said Kershaw, who started Game 1 of the 2018 World Series here.
“I’m sure the Red Sox fans were happy. They were winning, so they were good.”
Crochet, meanwhile, recovered from his double-dinger first inning to hold the Dodgers to four hits over the next five innings, striking out nine of the 20 batters he faced after the first inning and stranding runners at third base in the third and fourth innings.
“I just think Shohei hit his home run on a strike then Teo hit a hanging slider. He’s just good. A couple mistakes,” Freeman said.
“He’s always pounding the zone and getting ahead of hitters. He’s got electric stuff. Solo home runs aren’t going to hurt you. I feel like he was pitching the same (after the first inning). … Just two guys hit two mistakes.”
The Dodgers didn’t fare much better against the Red Sox bullpen. They struck out five more times in three innings against Justin Wilson, Garrett Whitlock and Aroldis Chapman.
Mookie Betts rejoined the team in time to pinch hit against Chapman in the ninth inning. He took a called third strike to end the game.