We as Los Angeles Dodgers fans are so lucky to be watching greatness every five to six days and on Tuesday night, Clayton Kershaw showed us exactly why.
Kershaw turned in a vintage performance for his 200th career win, going 7.0 scoreless innings, striking out nine and walking none. After Jason Heyward bobbled a line drive to right field, allowing the batter to reach third on the very first at bat of the game, Kershaw proceeded to strike out the next three, stranding that runner. He didn’t allow anyone else past second the rest of the game.
Over his illustrious career, now in its 16th season, Kershaw has the second lowest all time ERA. Of pitchers who have 200 wins or more, Kershaw has the winning percentage of them all. He is second to Randy Johnson in number of games with 9+ strikeouts and zero walks, with 41. The accomplishments and achievements just go on and on and we are indeed witnessing an All-Time Great.
Thankfully, the hit-or-miss Dodgers offense showed up for Kershaw to be able to get that 200th win at home. J.D. Martinez was the catalyst for most of the runs, hitting two homers and driving in four of the five runs.
The depth across the team is not great, but at this particular moment the fielding depth is incredibly thin. Mookie Betts is out on paternity leave; Will Smith is on concussion protocol; Miguel Rojas sustained an injury fielding a sharp grounder Tuesday night; Chris Taylor is dealing with an oblique strain.
The starting lineup put out on Wednesday for the matinee game facing Max Scherzer seems a little bleak, especially for the third highest payroll in baseball.
Luke Williams was promoted on Tuesday before the game, and the Dodgers signed Austin Wynns earlier in the week.
On Wednesday, Rojas was placed on the injured list with a hamstring strain, and Yonny Hernandez was recalled from Triple-A Oklahoma City.
Taylor is feeling better, but still not sure when he’ll be able to return, but hoping by the weekend. Smith is able to come off of concussion protocol on Thursday, but most likely also won’t return until sometime over the weekend. Betts has one day left of paternity leave after Wednesday, and should be definitely back in the lineup by Friday.
Where Betts will be playing is another question. With Taylor and Rojas out, Betts is the next in line to cover shortstop. He is the back-back-backup scenario, and we will see how Luke Williams hands the position in the meantime.
Sitting at 9-9, there are still a lot of questions regarding this season’s Dodgers. Better to get these injuries and issues worked out earlier in the season, and it is a long season. Even at that record, they are second in the NL West, two games behind the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Still, fans are antsy, as they have witnessed so many great teams in the past decade. There is still plenty of time field that to be the case for this team too – it currently just happens to be making a more round-about path getting there.