Los Angeles ace Clayton Kershaw did his job in an unfamiliar closer role to secure a 4-3 win for the Dodgers in Washington on Thursday, clinching the series and advancing to the National League Championship Series against the Chicago Cubs.
After regular closer Kenley Jansen issued a pair of walks with one out in the ninth inning, Kershaw was called up for his first relief appearance in seven years.
He got Daniel Murphy to pop out, then struck out Wilmer Difo to end it, taking his first ever save in the majors and responding to question marks over his reliability in playoff games.
Photo: AFP
“We’re all exhausted after every game, even if you’re sitting on the bench,” Kershaw said. “These games are such grinds that it’s just such a relieving feeling when they’re over and you win. It’s a little bit of an adrenaline rush right there.”
Washington lost the series 3-2, leaving the Nationals still without a post-season series win in their history.
Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts said before the game that there was no chance of Kershaw making a relief appearance, as it would only be two days since he threw 110 pitches in Game 4, but that changed.
“Clayton came to me in the seventh and said that he had an inning if I needed it,” Roberts said.
Jansen was forced into action earlier than usual, in the seventh inning, and threw a career-high 51 pitches, necessitating a change on the mound.
It had been 10 years since Kershaw’s previous save, in the minor Gulf Coast League. His catcher that day was Jansen, who only took up pitching in 2009.
Washington were leading 1-0 in the sixth, when Jayson Werth walked and Ryan Zimmerman smacked a two-out double to left. However, the third-base coach waved Werth to go for home, only for him to be easily thrown out, ending the inning.
It was a game-changing moment. What should have been a multi-run lead stayed at one, and the Dodgers then came out and scored four runs in the top of the seventh, including Joc Pederson’s homer off Max Scherzer and Justin Turner’s two-run triple off Shawn Kelley.
Chris Heisey responded for Washington in the bottom of the seventh with a two-run homer that made it 4-3, but then came Jansen and then Kershaw.
The West champion Dodgers are back in the National League Championship Series for the first time since 2013, but they have lost in their past three trips to that round, failing to make it to the World Series since they won their most recent championship in 1988.
A Washington team still have not won a post-season series since the Senators were the 1924 World Series champions.
“I’m not ready to go home,” Nationals first-year manager Dusty Baker said. “I haven’t been home since February, but I would have gladly stayed a couple more weeks.”
Hong Kong-based cricket team Hung See this weekend found success in their matches in Taiwan, even if none of the results went their way. Hung See played the Chairman’s XI on Saturday morning, the Daredevils that afternoon and PCCT yesterday, with all three home teams winning. The team for Chinese players at the Happy Valley-based Craigengower Cricket Club sends teams on tour to “spread the game of cricket.” This weekend was Hung See’s second trip to Taiwan after visiting Tainan in 2016. “The club has been traveling to all parts of the world since 1982 and the annual tradition continues [with the Taiwan
‘TOUGH TO BREATHE’: Tunisian three-time Grand Slam finalist Ons Jabeur suffered an asthma attack in her 7-5, 6-3 victory over Colombia’s Camila Osorio Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday cruised into the second round of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Iga Swiatek romped into a third-round women’s singles showdown with Emma Raducanu and Taylor Fritz was just as emphatic in his pursuit of a maiden Grand Slam title. Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, the third seeds, defeated Slovakia’s Tereza Mihalikova and Olivia Nicholls of Britain 7-5, 6-2 in 90 minutes in Melbourne. Ostapenko and Hsieh — who won the women’s doubles and mixed doubles at the Australian Open last year — hit 25 winners and converted five of nine break points to set
HARD TO SAY GOODBYE: After Coco Gauff dispatched Belinda Bencic in the fourth round, she wrote ‘RIP TikTok USA’ and drew a broken heart on a television camera lens Defending champion Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while compatriot Chan Hao-ching on Saturday dominated her opponents in the second round, as world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka swept into the quarter-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia toppled Hungary’s Timea Babos and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US 6-4, 6-3, hitting 24 winners and converting three of seven break points in 1 hour, 18 minutes at 1573 Arena. Although rivals at last year’s Australian Open — where Hsieh and Belgium’s Elise Mertens beat Ostapenko and Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok 6-1, 7-5
Dubbed a “motorway for cyclists” where avid amateurs can chase Tadej Pogacar up mountains teeming with the highest concentration of professional cyclists per square kilometer in the world, Spain’s Costa Blanca has forged a new reputation for itself in the past few years. Long known as the ideal summer destination for those in search of sun, sea and sand, the stretch of coast between Valencia and Alicante now has a winter vocation too. During the season break in December and January, the region experiences an invasion of cyclists. Star names such as three-time Tour de France winner Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel and Julian Alaphilippe
RSS