Due to the hot-take world in which we reside here in the social media era, every Clayton Kershaw postseason start seems like a referendum on his legacy. Every time he spins a gem -- and he's had several -- we seem to think he's finally got the playoffs all figured out. If he gets knocked around, he's still a choke artist. Rinse and repeat. 

The Dodgers long-time ace went out and dominated in Game 2 of the 2018 NLDS against the Braves, securing a 3-0 win to help his team take a 2-0 series lead. 

Perhaps most interesting here was Kershaw wasn't pitching for strikeouts, he instead was in complete control of the Braves' contact. They did square him up a few times -- namely Ronald Acuna Jr., who doubled and had a warning track fly -- but for the most part, this entire game was Kershaw inducing weak contact from the Braves' hitters. He only struck out one hitter (Nick Markakis looking on a beautiful curveball to end the first with Acuna standing on third) through seven incredibly efficient innings (73 pitches). It was funny to see Kershaw start working like late-30s Greg Maddux and just making hitters put it in play where he wanted them to. 

Then it felt like he smelled the blood in the water and just decided to take matters into his own hands, so to speak. He started more heavily dropping 12-to-6 hammers in the eighth, striking out the second and third hitters with a healthy diet of the aforementioned curves. He was through eight innings with 85 pitches. Two hits. No walks. A hit batsman on a pitch that so ticked Kershaw off he visibly reacted with disdain at himself on the mound. 

This might be as locked in as he's ever been on the mound and that's saying something. It was just mastery on another level. 

I'm sitting here angry at Dave Roberts for pulling him. He was gonna finish a shutout in fewer than 100 pitches (a Maddux!). I'm probably being selfish, but, man, let us see the shutout. Kershaw was carving them up like a lifetime butcher. 

Though many probably either don't know this or just blatantly ignore it, Kershaw has had lots of dominant postseason outings. Here are a few examples grabbed from his now 20 starts in the playoffs. 

  • In Game 1 of the 2013 NLDS, he struck out 12 in seven innings while allowing just one run on three hits.
  • In Game 4 of the 2015 NLDS, Kershaw struck out eight while allowing one run on three hits in seven innings. He was on short rest and it was an elimination game for the Dodgers. 
  • In Game 2 of the 2016 NLCS, he threw seven scoreless innings against the eventual World Series champs, allowing only two hits.
  • In Game 1 of the World Series last season, he allowed just one run in seven innings, striking out 11 without walking anyone. 

There are plenty of good ones in there. It's just that lots of people tend to remember the bad and it's apparently more fun to say "LOL playoff Kershaw" than it is to accept that bad outings against good teams happen on occasion. In fact, I already noticed the backlash against "playoff Kershaw" when Braves wunderkind Acuna led off with a double. 

Friday night in Dodger Stadium was not one of those occasions. Kershaw was stellar. The future Hall of Famer dominated in the playoffs with one of the more aesthetic outings of his career. Go laugh about how much "playoff Kershaw" stinks on your own time. We saw a rock star on Friday. 

LDS games will air on FS1, TBS and MLB Network. Games on TBS and FS1 can be streamed on fuboTV (Try for free). For a look at the complete schedule, click here.