LOS ANGELES — The sellout crowd at Dodger Stadium, which stood on its feet and roared at the sight of Dodgers great Clayton Kershaw coming out of the bullpen in the seventh inning, taking pictures for posterity, were now sitting in disbelief one inning later.
No one wanted to see this.
Really, they wanted to turn away.
This is Kershaw, the three-time Cy Young winner, perhaps the greatest pitcher of his generation, and here were 53,689 fans watching him get smacked around by the Philadelphia Phillies, as if they were taking batting practice.
Leadoff home run. Walk. Error. Sacrifice bunt. Single. Another home run. Double. Single. Long fly out to the warning track in center field.
Kershaw slowly trudged off the mound, the 3-1 deficit turning to 8-1, which became an 8-2 loss, and the fans were too numb to react.
They certainly weren’t going to boo him, but they felt it was disingenuous to cheer. So they did nothing, feeling his pain, while wondering why the Dodgers let him rot out there as if he was simply getting his work in during a spring training game.
Kershaw threw 48 pitches, only 22 for strikes, and departed after two innings with an ugly pitching line:
Two innings, 6 hits, 5 runs, 4 earned, 3 walks, 0 strikeouts and 2 home runs.
If not for Kyle Schwarber’s baserunning blunder, Bryce Harper getting thrown out at the plate, and right fielder Teoscar Hernandez’s fine catch, it could have been way uglier
It seemed unjust, even cruel, to let Kershaw stay out to finish the inning, as if he were a minimum-salaried mop-up man.
“It was a tough couple of innings there,’ Kershaw said in front of his locker. “Just didn’t make enough good pitches. I was battling command. It’s hard when you’re trying to throw strikes as opposed to getting people out.
“It just wasn’t a fun outing.’
When Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was asked afterwards why Kershaw wasn’t pulled, and left in the game to absorb the blows, he said that left-handed reliever Tanner Scott wasn’t available to replace him. Scott, the Dodgers’ struggling $72 million closer who has wamed up only once this postseason, wasn’t even at Dodger Stadium. He was taking care of a personal matter, Roberts said, but declined to specify the reason.
“It will come out later,’ Roberts said, “but he was completely unavailable.’
Kershaw didn’t make any excuses for his outing, saying he felt perfectly fine going out for the second inning and was not questioning the decision.
“It’s not really up to us,’ Kershaw said. “You just try to get people out. I wasn’t throwing strikes, and it’s hard to pitch when you’re behind the count. …
“I did the best I could, it just wasn’t there tonight.’
It was Kershaw’s first appearance since starting the regular season finale, with Roberts saying before the game that he expected Kershaw to pitch in relief.
“He just didn’t have a great slider tonight,’’ Roberts said. “I think Clayton pitches off his slider. When the slider’s not there, and then the fastball command, he was working behind, too. Just the command wasn’t there tonight.’
The Phillies seemed to wish they were actually teeing off on someone else besides Kershaw this night. When Harper was thrown out at the plate by left fielder Enrique Hernandez, he wasn’t upset. Just kept going to the dugout, not caring that it cost the Phillies a run.
Schwarber, who hit his second homer of the night off Kershaw, kept his emotions in check and looked almost subdued running around the bases.
“This guy’s going to be in the Hall of Fame,’ Schwarber said. “I have a lot of respect for Clayton and for how he goes about his business, and I know that he’s going to be leaving baseball after this year. So just from all of us, and the opposing side, we all have a ton of respect for him, obviously.’’
Then, Schwarber said, probably the only reason they were hitting him hard, was because he was back in the game for a second inning.
“It’s always nice to have a recent familiarity, I guess, seeing pitches,’’ Schwarber said. “He kind of missed with the fastball in and I was able to get it and snuck it just out enough.
“He’s always a unique guy with unique pitches. And so anytime you get to see him back-to-back times, I think that can be beneficial.’
It’s unlikely Kershaw will pitch again the rest of the series, and his struggles may give Roberts pause for turning to him in a critical situation if they advance to the NLCS.
Yet, no one at Dodger Stadium wants that to be the final memory of Kershaw, one of the greatest to ever pitch, struggling alone on the mound when there was no one there to rescue him.
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