His was the longest such streak since 1914. In fact, believe it or not, Kershaw has been enduring a “down” year by his standards. Puig is having the worst offensive stretch of his career in 2015 and has yet to get back on track after missing over a month with a hamstring strain, meaning clubs could have been looking to buy low.
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Kershaw struck out five of those first 16 batters, cracking the 200-strikeout barrier for the sixth consecutive season. Over his past eight starts, Kershaw has allowed just six earned runs in 63 innings (an 0.86 ERA) while striking out 74 and walking only five.
Kershaw argued to bat for himself with a 1-0 lead but, for what felt like the first time in weeks, momentum was on the Dodgers’ side. That chased Ross (3-4), who gave up five runs and six hits in 4 2-3 innings.
To no surprise, the Dodgers got another vintage Kershaw performance on the way to a 3-0 victory.
Williams seemed optimistic Harper, who had surgery on the same knee in 2013, would miss no more than a game or two. The Dodgers are the fourth-best team in the NL at limiting hits to their opponents, allowing only 8.2 hits per game so far this season. “A lot of things going my way, which is always nice to have”. He’d go on to finish 8.0 shutout innings with a total of eight strikeouts. He had driven in only four runs in his last 10 games, and three of those came in one game against the Phillies. Pedro Baez and Kenley Jansen had scoreless innings in the game.
Mattingly added that Puig, who has often drawn the ire of his teammates in the past, took their conversation in stride and that he “didn’t look like he was ready to hit me or anything”.
The no-hitter was already lost by that point.
“(The possibility of a flawless game) came to mind after the first inning when I saw (Kershaw)”, Hernandez said. To go along with his home dominance, he has also dominated left handed hitters as they have a. 328 slugging to go with 61 strikeouts in 235 at-bats. So, it was reasonable for Kershaw to allow a hit by Taylor.
He did make a bit of history in the end.
Kershaw joins Hall of Famers Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale in the pantheon of Dodgers greats who have recorded 200 or more strikeouts in six seasons.
More important to him, though, is staying healthy and pitching every fifth day.
“I think the only real news in this regard, the only significant news, is that we now know that Yasiel Puig is not going to get traded this summer”, ESPN Insider Buster Olney said on the Baseball Tonight Podcast.
All 15 home teams won. He has allowed three runs or fewer in all seven of his major-league starts and has struck out 47 and walked just four in 45 innings. When the ball bounced high off the center field wall and carmoed back over Michael Taylor’s glove, Ethier rounded second base and headed for third.
The Nationals have had four of their everyday players spend time on the disabled list: left fielder Jayson Werth, infielder Anthony Rendon, center fielder Denard Span and first baseman Ryan Zimmerman.
Jordan Zimmermann kept the Nationals in the game, holding the Los Angeles Dodgers to one run in seven innings. Crawford and Hernandez were clutch at the plate and in the field.
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“I wasn’t able to get anybody out”, he said. “It was a good overall game”.
