Winning when he couldn’t afford to lose, that was the problem.
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The Chicago Cubs, who wrapped up their division series Tuesday night, might enjoy it most of all, because with Games 1 and 2 of the National League Championship Series set for Saturday and Sunday, they know they won’t see deGrom or Greinke in either one.
-LHP Steven Matz took the loss in his postseason debut Tuesday night, when he gave up three runs on six hits and two walks while striking out four over five innings as the Mets fell to the Dodgers 3-1 in Game 4 of the NL Division Series. With the series returning to Los Angeles, Las Vegas odds makers list the Dodgers as slight favorites to win Game 5. The players themselves have tremendous playing opportunities in terms of what they can earn.
The night began hostile, with fans berating each and every Dodger during pregame intros – until Chase Utley’s turn came around.
Unable to muster much offense against Kershaw, the Mets squandered their only chance to close out the series at home.
Sometimes it was bad pitching, sometimes just bad luck.
Greinke allowed a pair of solo home runs in his Game 2 victory, but otherwise struck out eight with no walks in seven strong innings.
“I’m actually really happy for him”. I mean, this kid is tremendous.
“He’s swinging the bat good”, Dodger manager Don Mattingly said. “You don’t get many pitches to drive against him”. It was easy to forget Game 1 was deGrom’s first career postseason appearance. So I think it just feels good to get a big hit. In 475 regular-season outings, he’s only pitched in relief eight times.
“There’s no curse or anything”, he said. “He’s just got to get a few runs to work with”. And three Citi Field security guards lined up to congratulate Turner, still in uniform, just outside the room.
He won the National League MVP award last season, not to mention his third Cy Young in four years. With two runners on in the eighth and the count full, he retired Murphy on a fly to right. This season, he’s 11-1 with a 1.52 ERA at home and hasn’t allowed more than two runs at Dodger Stadium since April.
Kershaw, according to the narrative, needed to prove he wasn’t lousy. 429 in the series with five RBIs.
Fittingly, the Dodgers’ season could either be prolonged or end on back-to-back appearances by Kershaw and Greinke, whose arms propelled them to a third consecutive NL West title and a franchise-record third straight playoff appearance.
The New York Mets have a chance to advance to their first NLCS since the 2006 season. Still, he looked sharp early and snapped off several effective curveballs.
More pivotal at-bats from pitchers could be coming, too.
And this isn’t the first time Kershaw has pitched a playoff game on short rest. With two outs, Howie Kendrick grounded a single up the middle and Gonzalez dumped an RBI single into center. The union wanted longer time to get ready and John decided that he would give them until Monday in order to get ready. He threw just 32.7-percent fastballs in Game 2 against the Mets, compared to 45.5 percent in his 32 regular season starts. “We’ve got all the confidence in the world that if we get to the next round, he’s going to be a part of that rotation”. He was suspended two games by Major League Baseball executive Joe Torre for his rough slide in Game 2 that broke the right leg of Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada.
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Utley did not speak with reporters after Game 3.
