Kershaw is rewriting his October resume as Dodgers breathe a collective sigh of relief
The Dodgers took Game 1 of the World Series thanks to a masterful performance from their ace
By
Bill Reiter
•
3 min read
LOS ANGELES -- So there it was: One game of the 2017 World Series down, one marvelous outing by Clayton Kershaw, one giant home run from Justin Turner and one sure-thing save from closer Kenley Jansen.
And for Kershaw -- and a yearning Southern California that has waited for five long years for their pitching savior to fulfill his historically exceptional talent in October -- there was a huge, freeing sigh of relief.
There is much baseball left to be played, and obviously a single game neither marks a series victory nor condemns the other team to defeat. But just as surely as Kershaw can build in this October classic a stunning legacy that is now within reach -- including an argument he is the greatest pitcher ever -- there was welcome deliverance.
The Dodgers, and Los Angeles, needed this win.
It is a fact that Kershaw has too often faltered in the postseason, even if outside of Los Angeles many didn't truly understand it, care about it or believe it to be significant beyond the playoff games Kershaw pitched. Many would scoff at the idea Kershaw "choked," they'd give you numbers and sample sizes, they'd insist time would vindicate him. Which it has. But that's much easier to believe on the outside than here in L.A., where the Dodgers' nearly 30-year World Series drought has become a collective sports obsession, and ailment.
Los Angeles understood up close how badly this Dodgers team needed Clayton Kershaw the regular season star to deliver that same blinding greatness in a World Series game.
And did he ever.
He threw seven innings of three-hit ball, giving up only a solo homer. He struck out 11. He walked none. He was brilliant.
The Dodgers are a fun, exciting and built-to-last team. Yasiel Puig has turned his past diva tantrums and his regression to the mean into #PuigYourFriend, a touchstone to a Dodgers team both capable of great baseball and yet still having fun along the way. Cody Bellinger has emerged early, Corey Seager (despite his NLCS absence because of injury) is this team's true north, Chris Taylor is another great find by a forward-thinking and dynamic front office, Turner carries them when he must, the bullpen is lockdown and Jansen is, well, Jansen.
But this team was only ever going to go as far as Kershaw could take it. They know it. He knows it. The city knows it. It's why, one game in against a great Astros team, the feeling in L.A. was less jubilation and more: Thank God. Now let's go win some more games.
There's something to the idea of a team taking on, if not the personality, at least the baggage and beliefs of its fans. In New York, Yankees fans are less enthralled by World Series victories than they exude a certain certainty that this was the right order of things all along.
In Chicago, the Cubs winning the World Series last year -- particularly down 3-1 to Cleveland -- was as much an actual, true miracle as a product of Theo Epstein's methodical plan.
In Kansas City, that 2015 championship was a reinforcement of a city's worth on a grand national stage -- as much for that vibrant Midwestern city often overlooked as for a front office that took a long, toiling, highly doubted road to success.
And here in Los Angeles, the second biggest market in America now believes, like its star pitcher, that it can shake off a postseason baseball history not truly reflective of its baseball greatness and carve the legacy it sees as rightfully theirs.
