- Clayton Kershaw
4-1, 1.80 ERA, 0.77 WHIP, .176 AVG, 33/4 K/BB, 9.9 K/9
Leader on and off the field.
Kershaw started the season late because apparently he was busy finishing his 2014 time machine. His stuff is looking as good as ever, and he even ticked up his velocity to sit in the 92-94 MPH range again. Thank you Driveline.
There’s not necessarily any real correlation between his velocity and his stats returning to Cy Young level, but does it really matter? The point is King Kershaw is coming back for his throne DeGrom.
He’s had 5 starts in August and only one relative blemish. He gave up 4 runs to the Giants in 4.1 IP off of 3 homers. He still struck out 6 compared to 1 walk in what has been his worst outing of the year. Plus he made up for it next time.
Take out that start and Kershaw has an ERA of 0.70 with a WHIP of 0.545. The only reason we mention that, is just about every star pitcher will have about one bad outing this year. It’s an assumption for sure. But more likely than a pitcher being relatively perfect for 10+ starts.
So if Kershaw can keep that game against the Giants as his only blemish, he has a real shot at finishing in Cy Young Voting. He’s most likely a start away from qualifying for the stats leaderboard but here are his current ranks.
Right now, his walk rate is among the top 5% of pitchers. He’s throwing strikes at a team high 68% clip.
And that’s with him throwing fastballs at a career low rate. His slider has slowly become his dominant pitch in his arsenal. But he’s actually throwing about the same amount of sliders he has since 2018.
It’s the curveball he’s throwing at the highest rate since his rookie year. And it seems that public enemy #1 had to go into hiding for a bit, but is back and taking out batters one at a time. Currently batters are hitting .077 off of it.
And one of our personal favorite aspects of Kershaw so far, he hasn’t allowed a run in the first two innings of any game yet. We think this is huge because it gives the offense a chance to get ahead quickly and control the game.
The Dodgers are the 4th best NL offense in the 1st inning.
And the number 1 NL offense in the second inning.
Kersh really has a handle on it this year.
Dodger Dynasty 
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