Clayton Kershaw’s only career HR
Today is March 19th 2020 and it is Clayton Kershaw’s 32nd birthday. So I thought we’d go back to talk about the best Opening Day Dodgers game. Which included something every special for Kershaw and all of us.
The date was April 1st 2013. The Los Angeles Dodgers were set to face against their rivals the San Francisco Giants. The pitching matchup was Clayton Kershaw for the Dodgers and Matt Cain for the Giants. It seemed like a very solid pitching matchup. So most thought it would come down to the bullpen in this game.
Neither team could score any runs. Kershaw was having a great outing like he usually did. To some the game was boring but I really enjoyed it. I love watching pitching duels. You don’t see those that much anymore since the balls are most likely juiced. The MLB wants more HRs and more runs scored. Seeing a pitching duel is sadly rare nowadays. Matt Cain also had a solid outing he exited the game after the 6th inning. His final line was 6 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, and 8 Ks.
Everything felt like this game was going to go into extra innings. Until, the 8th inning came around. To lead off it was Clayton Kershaw followed by Carl Crawford and AJ Ellis.
Clayton stepped into the box to face relief pitcher George Kontos and the first pitch he saw he attacked. He got a 92 mph fastball almost down the middle of the plate. If you were watching at home you heard the crack of the bat followed by legendary announcer Vin Scully saying “ and a high fly ball to center, Pagan going back, it’s over his head and it’s over the fence.” Kershaw runs around the bases smiling while Dodgers stadium erupted after his eventual game-winning solo shot. He had a smile on his face from first base until he sat down in the dugout.
The Dodgers would go into win the game 4-0 but even with Kershaw’s solo shot they still would’ve won. He finished the game with 9.0 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, and 7 Ks.
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