Los Angeles Dodgers: Path to the World Series goes through Kershaw

The Los Angeles Dodgers are looking as good as ever heading into the second half.

As the second half of the baseball season starts today, put me in a group of growing fans who say for the Dodgers: put up or shut up! The Los Angeles Dodgers haven’t played let alone won a World Series in 29 years, since 1988 they’ve lost in the division series seven times and in the league championship series four times including last year’s against the Chicago Cubs.

By getting to the All-Star game with the best record in baseball at 61-29 and 7.5 game lead over the Arizona Diamondbacks the Dodgers are almost guaranteed their fifth straight division title. If they don’t make the World Series though they will have tied the major league record set by the Atlanta Braves, between 2000-2005 the Braves won five straight division titles and failed to go to the World Series every year.

If the Dodgers want to avoid joining the Braves the team will have to continue to play great baseball once they get in the post season. Frankly, fans won’t want to hear thi,s but the player who needs to step up the most is their ace Clayton Kershaw.

Last year the narrative around Kershaw was his redemptive postseason where he sacrificed his body by getting a save in Game 5 of the divisional series to beat the Washington Nationals. Kershaw looked even more formidable when he won Game 2 of the NLCS by beating the Chicago Cubs 1-0.

Everyone knows what happened next, trying to stave off elimination in game six, Kershaw was pedestrian, going five innings while giving up four runs as the Cubs clinched the series. Looking further last years playoffs pushed Kershaw’s ERA in the postseason to 4.55 that’s two whole runs higher than his career regular season of ERA 2.35.

As a starter, he’s had five series where his ERA is above 4.00. If you look at the Dodgers postseason history in Los Angeles Kershaw has the most double-digit strikeout games. Unfortunately, Kershaw has 3 of the top 10 games where a Dodger starter gave up five or more runs.

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Kershaw’s greatness during the regular season has no comparison other than Sandy Koufax when it comes to great pitchers who have donned the Dodgers uniform in LA. It might be unfair to compare Kershaw to Koufax but frankly, when Koufax was in the postseason the Dodgers fans were rewarded with wins.

In four series played (all the World Series) Koufax was able to win 4 games combined over 8 starts, that’s exactly the same number of wins Kershaw has pitched in 14 games started. That’s not just mediocre that’s down right horrible.

Baseball is a team sport and you need batting, defense, and pitching, but when you’ve been the consensus best pitcher in your generation regular season success without the playoff pedigree is not enough.

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If the Los Angeles Dodgers are going to go to their first World Series since 1988 then Kershaw has to be the pitcher who just shutout the Kansas City Royals striking out 13 in nine innings.  If the Kershaw who lost to the Cubs last year shows up, it will be another drought year for the boys in blue.