‘Embarrassing’: Kershaw pulled after 6-run 1st
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Alden Gonzalez, ESPN Staff Writer
LOS ANGELES — The ball sailed into the air and Clayton Kershaw rested his hands on his knees, head down, legs slightly bent, back toward home plate, a painful, all-too-familiar sight in this place, at this time of year. Gabriel Moreno had belted the three-run homer that gave the Arizona Diamondbacks a five-run lead before Kershaw recorded the first out in Game 1 of the National League Division Series on Saturday night, delivering the decisive blow within the first 10 minutes.
The Los Angeles Dodgers, their starting rotation in flux heading into October, have never needed Kershaw more. But they have never been more uncertain about what he can provide for them. Their playoff opener provided an ominous sign: six runs allowed, one out recorded and quite possibly the worst postseason start in baseball history.
“Disappointing,” Kershaw said after an 11-2 loss. “Embarrassing. You just feel like you let everybody down. The guys, a whole organization, that looked to you to pitch well in Game 1. It’s just embarrassing, really. So I just feel like I let everybody down. It’s a tough way to start the postseason. Obviously, we still have a chance at this thing, but that wasn’t the way it should’ve started for me.”
The final two months of the regular season saw Kershaw pitch brilliantly through a tender left shoulder. His fastball was a tick or two slower, his outings came after an additional day or two of rest, but he pitched to a 2.23 ERA in an eight-start stretch and was kept to only about five innings at a time in an effort to keep his arm fresh for the games that mattered most.
Game 1 began with Dodgers manager Dave Roberts noting that “this is as good as he’s felt physically in the last couple months.” It ended with Kershaw becoming the first playoff pitcher in major league history to allow five hits and five runs before recording an out. With Kershaw failing to finish the first inning for the first time in 454 career starts. With Kershaw and his famously checkered postseason track record joining only three others in allowing six-plus runs while recording one out or fewer in postseason history.
Dodgers catcher Will Smith said Kershaw’s stuff “looked like the normal stuff that it’s been all year.” Roberts said there was nothing physically wrong, a point Kershaw echoed.
“I feel fine,” Kershaw said when asked if he feels healthy enough to help the team moving forward. “I feel fine. I just didn’t make enough good pitches, obviously, tonight. There’s nothing health-related here; just bad pitching.”
Kershaw’s second pitch, a 73-mph curveball slightly low, was lined 116 mph to center field and bounced off the heel of James Outman‘s glove, a double that probably should have been ruled an error. Outman, a rookie, said the ball sped up on him but also that his “nerves kind of got the best of me.”
Corbin Carroll and Tommy Pham followed with back-to-back singles, Christian Walker added a double, and then Moreno, whose status was uncertain after he was hit in the head by a backswing during Arizona’s last game Wednesday, blasted a 419-foot home run to left-center field, leaving a still-arriving Dodger Stadium crowd in stunned silence.
Three batters later, after a one-out walk and another double, Kershaw exited, making way for rookie right-hander Emmet Sheehan.
“Usually Clayton does a great job of controlling, managing damage,” Roberts said. “And tonight unfortunately we didn’t do that.”
The outing increased Kershaw’s postseason ERA from 4.22 to 4.49 in 194⅓ innings. It’s two runs higher than his sterling regular-season ERA of 2.48 and stands as the highest among the 31 pitchers throughout major league history with more than 100 innings in the playoffs.
The differential has proved to be a major stain on Kershaw’s reputation, but it is also complicated, burdened by several outings in which he pitched on short rest, was used in relief or was kept in longer than normal. This time, it jumped significantly at a time when Kershaw — 35 years old, with nearly 3,000 innings under his belt and an assortment of injuries in his track record — is not fully healthy.
“I don’t think anybody in the baseball world was expecting that,” said Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman, part of an offense that did little against an aggressive Merrill Kelly. “But next time Clayton Kershaw’s on the mound, we’ll be just as confident again. Hopefully we can get him back on that mound.”
Kershaw’s next start, Roberts said, is still lined up for Game 4 at Chase Field in Phoenix on Thursday, an outing that will take place unless the Dodgers are swept.
Kershaw is the only man still standing from the Dodgers’ initial rotation. Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin underwent season-ending surgeries; Julio Urias is on administrative leave after allegations of domestic violence; Noah Syndergaard struggled mightily before being traded away; and Walker Buehler didn’t make it back from his second Tommy John surgery in time to help.
The Dodgers’ postseason pitching plan consists of a lot of rookies, a lot of relievers and a lot of unconventionality. But if they hope to make another deep run, and avoid the early-round disappointments that have plagued them in recent years, they need Kershaw to tap back into some of what has made him great.
They need him to recover dramatically for Game 4.
“I’ll be ready,” Kershaw said. “Yeah, I’ll be ready.”
Hard-throwing rookie Jacob Misiorowski is a National League All-Star replacement, giving the Milwaukee Brewers right-hander a chance to break Paul Skenes‘ record for the fewest big league appearances before playing in the Midsummer Classic.
Misiorowski was named Friday night to replace Chicago Cubs lefty Matthew Boyd, who will be unavailable for the All-Star Game on Tuesday night in Atlanta because he is scheduled to start Saturday at the New York Yankees.
The 23-year-old Misiorowski has made just five starts for the Brewers, going 4-1 with a 2.81 ERA while averaging 99.3 mph on his fastball, with 89 pitches that have reached 100 mph.
If he pitches at Truist Park, Misiorowski will make it consecutive years for a player to set the mark for fewest big league games before an All-Star showing.
Skenes, the Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander getting ready for his second All-Star appearance, had made 11 starts in the majors when he was chosen as the NL starter for last year’s All-Star Game at Texas. He pitched a scoreless inning.
“I’m speechless,” said a teary-eyed Misiorowski, who said he was given the news a few minutes before the Brewers’ 8-3 victory over Washington. “It’s awesome. It’s very unexpected and it’s an honor.”
Misiorowski is the 30th first-time All-Star and 16th replacement this year. There are now 80 total All-Stars.
“He’s impressive. He’s got some of the best stuff in the game right now, even though he’s a young pitcher,” said Yankees slugger Aaron Judge, who is a starting AL outfielder for his seventh All-Star nod. “He’s going to be a special pitcher in this game for a long time so I think he deserved it and it’s going be pretty cool for him and his family.”
Carlos Rodón, Carlos Estévez and Casey Mize were named replacement pitchers on the AL roster.
The New York Yankees‘ Rodón, an All-Star for the third time in five seasons, will replace teammate Max Fried for Tuesday’s game in Atlanta. Fried will be unavailable because he is scheduled to start Saturday against the Chicago Cubs.
In his final start before the All-Star game, Rodón allowed four hits and struck out eight in eight innings in an 11-0 victory over the Cubs.
“This one’s a little special for me,” said Rodón, an All-Star in 2021 and ’22 who was 3-8 in his first season with the Yankees two years ago before rebounding. “I wasn’t good when I first got here, and I just wanted to prove that I wasn’t to going to give up and just put my best foot forward and try to win as many games as I can.”
The Kansas City Royals‘ Estévez replaces Texas’ Jacob deGrom, who is scheduled to start at Houston on Saturday night. Estévez was a 2023 All-Star when he was with the Los Angeles Angels.
Mize takes the spot held by Boston‘s Garrett Crochet, who is scheduled to start Saturday against Tampa Bay. Mize gives the Tigers six All-Stars, most of any team and tied for the franchise record.
Royals third baseman Maikel Garcia will replace Tampa Bay‘s Brandon Lowe, who went on the injured list with left oblique tightness. The additions of Estévez and Garcia give the Royals four All-Stars, matching their 2024 total.
The Seattle Mariners announced center fielder Julio Rodríguez will not participate, and he was replaced by teammate Randy Arozarena. Rodríguez had been voted onto the AL roster via the players’ ballot. The Mariners, who have five All-Stars, said Rodríguez will use the break to “recuperate, rest and prepare for the second half.”
Arozarena is an All-Star for the second time. He started in left field for the AL two years ago, when he was with Tampa Bay. Arozarena was the runner-up to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the 2023 Home Run Derby.
Rays right-hander Drew Rasmussen, a first-time All-Star, is replacing Angels left-hander Yusei Kikuchi, who is scheduled to start Saturday night at Arizona. Rasmussen is 7-5 with a 2.82 ERA in 18 starts.
San Diego added a third NL All-Star reliever in lefty Adrián Morejón, who replaces Philadelphia starter Zack Wheeler. The Phillies’ right-hander is scheduled to start at San Diego on Saturday night. Morejón entered the weekend with a 1.71 ERA in 45 appearances.
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Jesse Rogers
CHICAGO — Former White Sox lefty Mark Buehrle was forever immortalized inside Rate Field as the team unveiled a statue in his honor Friday.
Buehrle, 46, played 16 years in the majors, including the first 12 with the White Sox, who he helped win a World Series in 2005. He won 214 games and pitched 200 innings or more in 14 consecutive seasons from 2001 to 2014.
“I can’t put it into words,” Buehrle said after the unveiling. “You don’t play the game for any of this. You never think of number retirements or statues. I can’t even wrap my head around it. It doesn’t make sense.”
The statue is an action shot of him throwing a pitch.
His wife and kids were in attendance and helped pull off the cover to unveil the statue while his 2005 teammates looked on. The event kicked off a weekend reunion for the World Series team which went 11-1 in the postseason, beating the Houston Astros in four games to take home the title.
Buehrle was a five-time All-Star and four-time Gold Glove winner, finishing fifth in Cy Young voting in 2005.
“Well-deserved,” former right fielder Jermaine Dye said of the statue. “Great teammate. Great leader. Definitely someone you want on a ballclub to lead a pitching staff.”
The White Sox rotation — led by Buehrle — threw four complete games in the ALCS against the Boston Red Sox in 2005, missing a fifth complete game by two-thirds of an inning. It’s an unheard of accomplishment in today’s game since starters infrequently go the distance.
Besides being an innings-eater on the mound, Buehrle was a fast worker — a favorite trait of his catcher, A.J Pierzynski. And he wasn’t someone who threw a lot of different pitches. He caught it and threw it without much input from behind the plate.
“He was fast,” Pierzynski said. “We had Jermaine Dye calling pitches from right field some games. We did come crazy things you wouldn’t recommend to people to do nowadays.”
Buehrle is a notoriously low-key guy who hates the spotlight but even he was moved by the team’s decision to honor him with a statue, which joins former slugger Harold Baines in the right-field concourse.
“I joked with him when I saw him,” Dye said. “I told him ‘Man it takes you getting a statue to get you out of the house.'”
Buehrle added: “I was literally nervous as can be today. This is not my comfort zone but by no means am I taking it lightly. This is incredible.”
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