In this 2020 MLB season sim, Kershaw leaves the D’Backs hitless in a showdown of NL West leaders.
The Arizona Diamondbacks intended to win their first scheduled series of the simulated 2020 season with the National League’s other dominant team, the Los Angeles Dodgers.
But Clayton Kershaw said no. More precisely, Kershaw said no-hitter.
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The veteran Dodger ace threw the simulated season’s third no-hitter Tuesday, stopping Arizona 5-0 as part of what turned out to be a four-game series split at Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers also won Wednesday’s game 7-6 in 10 innings. Arizona took the Monday opener 7-3 and thee Thursday finale 5-4.
The result left the NL West race precisely where it had been at week’s start, Arizona two games ahead. The teams meet again next week for three games in Phoenix.
The D-Backs played comfortably under pressure Monday, especially Merrill Kelly, who ran his record to 8-1. Kelly lasted eight innings, allowing three runs before turning the game over to Archie Bradley. Ketel Marte, Arizona’s offensive leader all season, homered in the third inning for the game’s first run, then homered again in the sixth. By then the D-Backs led 5-1.
But any momentum the D-Backs took from that victory evaporated once they ran into Kershaw, 6-4. He allowed just four baserunners, two on walks and two on errors. The closest any D-Back came to a hit was Ketel Marte’s seventh-inning fly ball to the warning track in left field. Marte made the final out, on a ground ball to shortstop Corey Seager.
Fifth inning home runs by Mookie Betts and Cody Bellinger gave Kershaw all the support he needed.
The Dodgers rallied against Bradley to take Wednesday’s game. He gave up a ninth-inning game-tying home run to Bellinger, and allowed reserve catcher Tim Federowicz to deliver a walk-off four-bagger in the 10th. Those were two of five Dodger home runs on the night.
Thursday’s closeout game was equally tense, coming down to superior run-manufacturing on the part of substitute Tim Locastro. Leading off the top of the ninth of a 4-4 tie, Locastro got in the way of a Dylan Florio pitch and was awarded first base. He stole second and then third off catcher Austin Barnes, and came home on David Peralta’s double into the gap. This time Bradley delivered the save, his ninth.
In other NL mid-week series, the Phillies swept Miami’s Marlins and moved to the top of the NL East standings. Their season-long challenges, the Atlanta Braves, split a pair of games with the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park and trail the Phillies by two percentage points.
The Cincinnati Reds took two of three in San Diego and clung to the lead in the NL Central over St. Louis, which beat the Colorado Rockies two of three. The Milwaukee Brewers split inter-league games with the Minnesota Twins, and the Chicago Cubs beat the New York Mets two of three.
The Washington Nationals swept a three-game series from the San Francisco Giants, and the Pittsburgh Pirates lost a pair of inter-league games from the visiting New York Yankees.