Clayton Pitches A Gem on Vin Scully Night

On the night remembering Vin Scully and the 73^rd anniversary of his 1^st Dodgers broadcast, Clayton Kershaw was brilliant in winning his 200^th game as a Los Angeles Dodger.  The Dodgers shut out the Mets 5-0, with Kershaw going 7.0 IP.  Evan Phillips and Brusdar Graterol pitched scoreless innings to complete the shutout.

Things certainly looked ominous in the first, as the first batter hit a fly ball to Jason Heyward in RF that he played into a 3 base error.  Clayton ramped up and struck out Starling Marte, Francisco Lindor, and Pete Alonso to keep Nimmo at 3^rd and out of the inning.

After striking out Lindor and Alonso to open the 7^th, Kersh had a 13 pitch battle with Mark Canha.  It seemed to tire him a bit (his words).  He immediately gave up a single to Jeff McNeil on the next pitch to put runners on 1^st and 3^rd.

The next batter, Tommy Pham, chased a 3-2 slider for Clayton 9^th strikeout on the night.  He ended the game the same way he started it.  He struck out the side, leaving a runner stranded on 3^rd.

With the 9^th strikeout, Clayton moved past Mickey Lolich into 21^st on the All-Time Strikeout leaderboard with 2,833. Next stop is Jim Bunning (2,855).  He is 22 shy.

The offensive star was JD Martinez.  He was 4-5 with 2 HRs and 4 RBIs.  James Outman also had a pair of singles.  Max Muncy had a single with 3 walks.

In a Wednesday afternoon game (12:10 PM), the Dodgers will send out Noah Syndergaard against Max Scherzer.  The Dodgers will try to win the series and head out to Chicago with a record north of .500.