Clayton Kershaw (Who Else?) Leads Dodgers Past Giants for NL West Crown

In what was probably the easiest decision of his managerial career, Don Mattingly sent Clayton Kershaw to the mound Wednesday night with the Los Angeles Dodgers’ first opportunity to clinch the NL West crown over the San Francisco Giants. In what was probably the least surprising result of the season, the Dodgers won 9-1 behind Kershaw’s ‘ho hum’ eight innings of 1-run ball with 11 strikeouts. And that was how the West was won, ladies and gentlemen–behind Kershaw’s dominance and leadership.

In the top of the third inning, with no score, the Giants had runners on second and third with no outs. Giants starter Tim Hudson bounced a hard ground-ball back up the middle, but Kershaw spun and back-handed the ball with his back turned to home-plate. He froze the base-runners, then casually threw Hudson out at first base. While the Giants ended up scoring one run, Kershaw’s elite defensive play almost certainly saved two runs.

Two innings later, in the bottom of the fifth, Kershaw came up to the plate with the Dodgers still trailing 1-0, and tripled home Carl Crawford with two outs. With the crowd electric and chanting “M-V-P” louder and louder as the game wore on, the Dodgers finally broke the Giants’ spirit in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Sep 24, 2014; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers left fielder Carl Crawford (3) doubles in two runs in the sixth inning against the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports

Yasiel Puig led off the inning with a solo home run–only his third home run since July 31st. Then, after Matt Kemp doubled and Hanley Ramirez was intentionally walked, the Giants brought in lefty-specialist Javier Lopez to face Carl Crawford. Lopez, a long-time, first-rate lefty-specialist, had limited left-handed batters to a .182 average entering Wednesday night’s game. But Crawford, who has platooned with right-handed batter Scott Van Slyke for most of the season, had been hitting over .300 for the season against lefties. Sure enough, Crawford held in tough against Lopez and laced a double near the right-field line to score Kemp and Ramirez. Juan Uribe followed that up with a two-out RBI single and the Dodgers were up 5-1 just like that.

Just to rub a little more salt in the Giants’ wounds–Puig threw Gregor Blanco out trying to go from first to third on a single by Matt Duffy in the top of the seventh inning. Kershaw then struck out Hunter Pence, and that was all she wrote for the Giants. It was pretty clear at that point that Mattingly would let Kershaw carry the Dodgers through the eighth inning.

But for good measure, the Dodgers put up another four runs in the bottom of the eighth, and the raucous, playoff-like crowd was just waiting to celebrate the Dodgers’ NL West crown. Former Giant Brian Wilson came in to shut the door in the ninth and the celebration was on.

Sep 24, 2014; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers celebrate defeating the San Francisco Giants and winning the National League West title at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports

So Kershaw did a little bit of everything on Wednesday night–he was his usual, dominant self on the mound (although, as Vin Scully pointed out several times, not as completely dominant as usual), he made a Gold Glove-type defensive play, he tied the game with a two-out triple, and he led his team both to victory and the NL West title. As my colleague Mario Elizondo has suggested, I think Kershaw has proven at this point that he IS the National League’s Most Valuable Player. If you had asked his teammates after Wednesday night’s victory (and some were asked), I’m sure they would (or did) all agree.