Kershaw’s pitching gem pulls Dodgers even with Cubs

“We look to him to be the back end of the bullpen and be the leader of that bullpen”.

Kershaw is not a superhero. After all, three of their four postseason wins had come in the team’s last at-bat.

Kershaw recorded his first ever scoreless postseason start of his career, allowing just two hits with one walk and six strikeouts over seven superb innings. Following the script that should have been followed in the first place, the Dodgers and Kershaw suffered no more relapses. On the other side Kenta Maeda could not match Lester’s quality start in allowing 3 runs and lasting only 4 innings.

It is Game 5 that provides the most intrigue for the Dodgers. But he mentioned an important caveat.

“You got to walk Heyward with the open base”, Roberts said. “But as it stands right now, that’s how we have it lined up”.

Miguel Montero’s eighth-inning grand slam powered the Chicago Cubs to an 8-4 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday in Game 1 of their Major League Baseball playoff series.

Maddon knew Arrieta might just feel invincible after shouldering the burden of huge innings while compiling a 1.77 ERA.

Then, we do it all over again, continually causing three days off between games.

In a break from his postseason norm, Kershaw was a dominant force on the mound for seven innings on Sunday night as he routinely shut down Cubs batters. In all, he’s had four stints with the Dodgers in his first season, and Los Angeles has limited him to 16 innings since September 1. Game day he’s very quiet, very focused.

The positivity that carried him through the Cubs’ 103-win season was rewarded Saturday with one of the biggest pinch-hits in Cubs history. “We were the best team in baseball, but in a best-of-five series, we could be just as neutralized as anybody else”.

On the surface, the choice for Game 5 looks simple. “But fastball command was good enough to get away with it and (I) threw enough sliders when I needed to keep people off balance”. He was 15-2 with an AL-low 3.00 ERA this season.

Game 3 will start at 7:08p CT on FS1.

The Cubs sent closer Aroldis Chapman to the mound, and he struck out two before giving up a two-out single to Adrian Gonzalez that scored Andrew Toles and Chase Utley to tie the game. A pumped-up Gonzalez celebrated at first base after delivering Los Angeles’ first hit in 12 at-bats with the bases loaded in these playoffs.

Thus the deployment of relief pitchers will be important to track during these next two games.

Maddon would like nothing better than to receive production from the middle of a lineup that has been silent for much of the postseason.

When Clayton Kershaw completed his first career save in the National League Division Series on Thursday, teammate Charlie Culberson found the game ball on the ground so Kershaw could collect it as a keepsake.

“This was a game we really wanted to have especially when Clayton threw the ball the way he did”, continued Roberts. “This is a new year and I don’t think anybody in the clubhouse cares about that narrative”.