Kershaw, Dodgers are too much for Nationals, 4
Clayton Kershaw tortured the Washington Nationals in all the expected ways Tuesday night. Hitters will try to erase the sight of his delivery coming at them, the knee-to-chin leg kick giving way to his funky-quick motion, a delivery that spit out a combination of sadistic curveballs and sudden fastballs. For eight innings, one swing from Bryce Harper aside, Kershaw lived up to his best-pitcher-in-baseball billing.
But Kershaw managed to tip his duel with Doug Fister in an unexpected way. Kershaw created the crucial rally in the Nationals' 4-1 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers not from the Dodger Stadium mound, but on the base paths. Kershaw's bold base running decision, testing Harper's arm in center field by going first to third, sparked Fister's undoing and turned a toe-to-toe pitching matchup into a knockout.
Fister matched Kershaw for four innings, but the Dodgers scored two runs off him in the fifth after Kershaw started a rally. Fister could not record an out in the sixth inning, leaving after Juan Uribe smashed a two-run homer and all four Dodgers he faced reached base, three with booming hits and one with a walk.
The Nationals needed to play perfect behind Fister to give themselves a fighting chance against Kershaw, and they were far from it. They mangled plays and misfired throws, the most jarring a baffling play by shortstop Ian Desmond. Fister pitched well until the sixth, but he still continued his recent downswing. After winning 14 of 17 when Fister took the mound, the Nationals have lost his past three starts. Fister has allowed 27 hits, five of them home runs, in those 16 2/ 3 innings.
Kershaw allowed three hits and walked two in eight innings, choking the life out of the Nationals' lineup. Harper provided the Nationals' only run with a mammoth homer on Kershaw's first-pitch fastball in the seventh inning - the first RBI by a left-hander against Kershaw all season - and Wilson Ramos and Anthony Rendon each singled.
The Nationals need a victory Wednesday afternoon to salvage a 4-5 road trip, but they have maintained a stranglehold on the National League East. The Atlanta Braves lost Tuesday, keeping the Nationals' lead at seven games and dropping their magic number to 18.
The Nationals' downfall began in the bottom of the fifth. With one out, Kershaw lined a single into center, which gave him the same number of hits recorded as allowed.
Dee Gordon hit a soft liner into center field, and as Harper charged the ball, Kershaw decided he would go first to third. Harper fired a bullet, but it pulled Rendon off third base. Rendon made a rapid calculation: he thought he had a better chance throwing to second for Gordon than trying to tag Kershaw. As Kershaw slid into third, Rendon whipped the ball to second, but too late.
The Dodgers' base running, and the Nationals' ineffective reaction to it, had turned a small rally into a major jam. Fister induced a weak one-hopper by Hanley Ramirez to Desmond, who fired to first for the second out. One more, and the game would remain scoreless.
Facing Adrian Gonzalez, Fister got the result he wanted, a slow groundball. But it trundled past Rendon's dive and deep into the shortstop hole. Desmond snared the ball with a backhand, but he did not control it fully, allowing Gonzalez to cruise into first and Kershaw to score.
Believing the ball had trickled into left field, Gordon bolted home. Desmond still held the ball on the lip of the grass behind third base. A simple throw home would have ended the inning. Oddly, Desmond dashed home holding the ball up, like a scrambling quarterback, before floating a throw home. It sailed over Wilson Ramos's head and to the backstop. Another run scored, and for good measure, Gonzalez hustled into second.
As if to prove some alien force had not sapped his defensive ability, Desmond ended the inning with a dazzling diving stop up the middle and a rifle throw to first. But the inexplicable play before that had put the Nationals in a 2-0 hole.
Fister's first five innings laid the foundation for an excellent start, his only issue well-placed soft contact and weird defense. In the sixth, though, the Dodgers splattered his pitches. After his last start, Fister chided himself for not keeping his pitches low in the strike zone. He accomplished that in the first five innings. In the sixth, Fister's sinkers and curves were elevated, and the Dodgers blasted them.
Carl Crawford ripped a single to right to lead off. Fister hung a first-pitch sinker to Uribe, who had hit six home runs all season. Uribe smashed it into the left field bleachers. The Nationals trailed, 4-0, against a pitcher who hasn't allowed four runs since mid-May. The Dodgers promptly finished off Fister. Joc Pederson drew a walk, and A.J. Ellis smoked a single to right field on another fastball left high in the zone.
The Dodgers would have scored earlier if not for Asdrubal Cabrera, who redeemed a messy play with his keen awareness, nimble feet and a cannon arm.
Matt Kemp led off the fourth inning with a line drive over Harper's head for a ground-rule double. Crawford dragged a bunt down the first base line. Fister scooped the ball and attempted to shovel it to first baseman Kevin Frandsen. Fister spiked the throw, though, and the ball rolled through Frandsen's legs.
Kemp steamed around third base, surely positive he would to score the game's first run. But Cabrera had scurried into shallow right field and collected the ball. He found himself in a spot on the field no one ever occupies. Momentum still carried him toward the line. Cabrera spun to align himself. It was not a throw that gets practiced.
Falling away from the plate, his body twisting, Cabrera fired a rocket. The ball sizzled into Ramos's mitt, inches off the left corner of the plate, perfect. Ramos tagged Kemp as he slid into the plate, and a disaster had turned into an out.
Cabrera's stellar play preceded a handful of messy ones. The Nationals could not overcome them, especially against Kershaw.
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