Clayton Kershaw falls to Cardinals again, in excruiciating fashion

Baseball can be cruel sometimes. Soul crushing, even. That was the case on Tuesday afternoon, when Matt Adams with one swing of the bat against Clayton Kershaw turned a two-run Dodgers lead into a 3-2 Cardinals win in Game 4, eliminating the Dodgers in the best-of-five in the NLDS, three games to one.

Kershaw was magnificent through six innings on three days rest, allowing just one hit and two walks with nine strikeouts. He was at 94 pitches through six innings and was due up in the seventh, but after striking out the side in the sixth was allowed to stay in for the seventh inning.

Matt Holliday opened the frame with a hard ground ball single off the glove of second baseman Dee Gordon. Jhonny Peralta followed with a soft line drive just off the glove of shortstop Hanley Ramirez.

Up came Matt Adams, who hit .190/.231/.298 with three home runs in 130 plate appearances against left-handed pitchers this season.

On the second pitch, he homered.

Kershaw, now 0-4 with 7.15 ERA in four postseason starts against the Cardinals in the last two years, had the weirdest of series. In the first six innings of his starts, Kershaw allowed a combined three hits, two runs and two walks with 19 strikeouts.

In the seventh inning, he allowed nine hits and nine runs while recording all of two outs.

I don't really have much to add right now. The Dodgers offense didn't do much yet again, providing a razor-thin margin for error.

Up next

Lots of finger pointing and teeth gnashing.

Game 4 particulars

Home run: Matt Adams (1)

WP - Marco Gonzales (2-0): 1 IP, 1 hit, 1 walk

LP - Clayton Kershaw (0-2): 6+ IP, 4 hits, 3 runs, 2 walks, 9 strikeouts

Sv - Trevor Rosenthal (3): 1 IP, 1 hit, 1 walk, 1 strikeout