7th inning plagues Clayton Kershaw, Cardinals advance to NLCS
The Los Angeles Dodgers gave it their best shot. In a do or die, win or go home, game four situation manager Don Mattingly had no choice but to start the league’s most prolific pitcher.
Clayton Kershaw started game four of the 2014 NLDS, looking like the Cy Young Award winner that he is. He started on short rest and it was his first start since he gave up eight runs in the seventh inning of game one of the NLDS. It was likely his worst start, maybe, in his entire career.
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Well, it seeems, the seventh inning is now plaguing Clayton Kershaw. The Dodgers were up 2-0 over the Redbirds in the sixth. Having scored two in the top of the an interesting half of the sixth inning.
Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez both singled to start the sixth inning off. Then Matt Kemp grounded into a double play but it allowed Crawford to score. Now down 1-0, Cardinals starter Shelby Miller hit Hanley Ramirez and walked Andre Ethier, putting runners on first and second with two outs.
Seth Maness was brought in to replace Miller and promptly gave up a RBI single to Juan Uribe that scored Ramirez and moved Ethier to third. Maness made a pickoff throw to third, intially Ethier was called safe but after a replay review the call on the field was overturned ending the inning.
At this point Kershaw was cruising right along. He struck out the side to start the game, worked well through the fifth and he struck out the side in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Oct 7, 2014; St. Louis, MO, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw (22) walks back to the dugout with catcher A.J. Ellis in the 5th inning during game four of the 2014 NLDS baseball playoff game against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports
However, in the seventh inning lightning struck Kershaw again, almost like it did in the NLDS game one. He gave up back to back singles to Matt Holliday and Jhonny Peralta.
Matt Adams stepped up to the plate and on Kershaw’s second pitch, a 73 mph hanging curve, he launched a three-run shot to into the right field stands and suddenly Kershaw found himself and his team down a run that they ended up not being able to comeback from.
The St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Kershaw and the Dodgers by the score of 3-2 and will advance to the National League Championship Series. They will face either the San Francisco Giants or the Washington Nationals in the 2014 NLCS.