Chapter 13: 2014, the Clayton Antihit Act is passed
Clayton Kershaw has a season for the ages. But two games are all that people seem to remember
After winning the NL West in 2013, the Dodgers were able to do it again the next year, although they had to come from further back and without a monstrous hot streak. And much of the work was due to the amazing pitching of Clayton Kershaw who would win both the MVP and Cy Young Award with a 21-3 record, 1.77 ERA, and 239 strikeouts. He missed out on leading in strikeouts by three behind Johnny Cueto and Steven Strasburg.
Kershaw’s magnum opus for the season came on June 18, when he no-hit Colorado at home, striking out 15 with no walks. The Rockies got one baserunner on a Hanley Ramirez error.1
That was actually the Dodgers second no-hitter of the season. Josh Beckett, who would be forced into retirement with injuries in August, no-hit Philadelphia on May 25.
The Dodgers trailed the Giants in the standings by 10 game on June 8, but the Giants had a midseason meltdown and the Dodgers overtook them in the standings for good on July 27 and won the division by six games. The Giants made the playoffs as a wild card.
There was a possibility of a Freeway Series as the Angels won the AL West, but the playoffs were unkind to Southern California, but much kinder to Missouri.
The Angels were swept out of the playoffs by the Kansas City Royals. The Dodgers drew regular playoff nemesis, St. Louis.
Game 1 had a late afternoon start (3:30) and was played in hot (96 degrees at first pitch), Santa Ana wind conditions. The Cardinals tooks the lead in the first on a Randal Grichuk homer.2 But, the Dodgers were able to get six runs across against Adam Wainwright and drove him out in the fifth inning. The Dodgers led 6-2 after six.
Then came a seventh inning that was pure misery for Dodger fans. Kershaw somehow could get no one out. Four straight singles led to one run. Kershaw managed a strikeout. Then Jon Jay singled in another run and the Dodgers lead was 6-4. Kerhsaw struck out a pinch hitter. This brought up Matt Carpenter, who had homered the inning before. Kershaw had thrown 21 pitches in the inning and was at 102 pitches. Would Don Mattingly turn to his pen? No.
Carpenter and Kershaw dueled for eight pitches. Kershaw got ahead 0-2, but Carpenter would not go away easily. On the eighth pitch, Carpenter drove a pitch deep to right that almost went over the fence, but stayed in for a double. But all the runners scored. The Cardinals led 7-6. And it seemed even hotter and more miserable.
Mattingly took Kershaw out and replaced him with Pedro Baez. The result was a walk and a three-run homer by Matt Holliday. The Cardinals had scored eight times and led 10-6. The misery index grew.
The Dodgers scored twice in eighth on an Adrian Gonzalez homer. And they got the tying run on base in the ninth, but came up short 10-9.
Game 2 went the Dodgers way 3-2 with the Dodgers winning on a late homer by Matt Kemp. The trip to Missouri went poorly.
In Game 3, the Dodgers lost on a late 2-run homer by Kolten Wong.
Kershaw came back to pitch Game 4. The Dodgers nursed a 2-0 lead into the seventh. And again, it all fell apart. Matt Holliday and Jhonny Peralta singled. Kershaw stayed in to face lefty Matt Adams. Adams defied the odds and hit a 3-run homer.3 The Cardinals won the game 3-2 and the series in four games.
Although the postseason was a crushing disappointment, off the field, the Dodgers pulled off a major financial deal that greatly benefited the team’s bottom line as well as its play on the field. 2014 was the year that the Dodgers started their own local cable network, SportsNet LA.
The channel, carried only on cable and only by certain providers, walled off the Dodgers from numerous television viewers. The 25-year deal would be a huge cash cow and would prop up the troubled cable TV provider, Spectrum. But in an era when streaming television would begin to dominate the market, the Dodgers disappeared behind an electronic wall that many fans no longer felt it was the worth the expense of trying to scale it.
Fun fact: The Dodgers current starting shortstop, Miguel Rojas, was playing at third base in this game. Rojas had made his big league debut on June 6
There was also a brief bench-clearing incident in the bottom of the first. It happens. Santa Anas do that.
Kershaw surrendered just nine homers in the regular season and only one to a lefty, Bryce Harper. He gave up three homers in two playoff games.