There isn’t a major league pitcher out there who wouldn’t be ecstatic to come away from an outing against the powerful Angels of Anaheim allowing only three runs over seven innings – any pitcher except Clayton Kershaw, that is. Whereas any other pitcher would consider this a success, the reigning NL Cy Yong Award winner views it as a poor outing.

“I struggled at first and don’t know why,” said Kershaw after the Dodgers exciting 5-4 win over the Angels on Tuesday night. “I was just missing and they were putting good swings on it. It was almost like Zack [Greinke] last night. They’re a great team with quality hitters. Give credit to them.”

Quality hitters indeed; in fact, the struggles that Kershaw spoke of included allowing four consecutive hits – a single to Howie Kendrick, a double to David Freese, a double to Chris Iannetta and a single to Colin Cowgill in the top of the second inning followed by back-to-back doubles to Mike Trout and Albert Pujols in the third innings accounting for the only runs and only hits that the left-hander would allow all night. After that last double to Pujols in the third inning, Kershaw did not allow another hit to the next 16 batters he faced.

After a rough start, Kershaw retired 16 Angel batters in a row – including this 5th inning strike out of Mike Trout. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

But in spite of Kershaw’s rough start and stellar finish, the larger than normal national media on hand at Dodger Stadium looking to capitalize on their own hype over the Kershaw-Trout duel were pretty much put in their place by the 26-year-old Kershaw.

“I’ll talk about the Angels, sure, [Trout is] one of their best hitters, absolutely,” said a visibly annoyed Kershaw. “I’m not going to talk about individual at-bats. He’s a great hitter. He got two hits. Tip your cap.”

After making a total of 104 pitches (67 for strikes), Dodger manager Don Mattingly lifted Kershaw opting instead for right-hander Brian Wilson to pitch the eighth. And while Wilson managed to strike out two of the four batters he faced, he also allowed a monster home run to Pujols to deny Kershaw of what would have been an MLB-leading 14th win, instead leaving him with a no-decision.

“I think he would have went another inning,” said Mattingly of Kershaw. “It really wasn’t a pitch count, it was really more he was battling all night. It was more of a fight as far as having to struggle and every inning kind of continue to fight. Some of the other games we get to the same pitch count it’s been seven smooth [innings] and you feel a lot more comfortable having him go back out. Right there tonight we didn’t have any doubt about taking him out of there.”

Pujols’s monster 8th inning home run off of Brian Wilson was the 513th of his career and puts him at 21st all-time ahead of Ernie Banks and Eddie Matthews and eight behind recent Hall of Famer Frank Thomas. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

After tying the game at four on the Pujols home run, the stage was set for an exciting bottom of the ninth. With one out, Dodger third baseman Juan Uribe, who had a clutch three-run home run earlier in the game, singled sharply to right. In what would prove to be a huge (and brilliant) decision on Mattingly’s part, Uribe was put in motion on a 3-2 count to A.J. Ellis, who singled up the middle allowing Uribe to take third base.

With runners at the corners and only one out, Angels manager Mike Scioscia opted to go with a five-man infield, loading up the right side. Mattingly countered by pinch hitting exiled outfielder Andre Ethier who, as he has done so many times in the past, put the ball in play – but to third baseman David Freese, not to the loaded up right side of the infield.

“I cursed in my head,” said Ethier when asked what he was thinking when he felt the ball come off of the bat and right at Freese. “I said ‘Oh s***,’ I put my head down and ran as hard as I could to first. I was looking at Davey [Lopes] the whole time and trying to see his reaction and listening to the crowd too. Actually I thought when I first hit it is that we had a shot and then I saw Freese get a good jump on it and so I just wanted to get down to first as quick as I can and avoid that double play ball. He got it into home real quick and I was waiting for the crowd to react, and they did. It’s not the prettiest [walk-off win] out of all of them but it definitely feels just as good.”

Ethier’s pinch-hit walk-off fielders choice may not have been pretty but it was effective.
(Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)

Freese did get the ball to Iannetta real quick. In fact, had his errant throw not been wide, Uribe would have been out by a good three feet. But instead Uribe scored the winning run to even the four-game interleague series at one game apiece.

The two teams travel down Interstate-5 for games three and four on Wednesday and Thursday nights with struggling right-hander Dan Haren (8-9, 4.76 ERA) going for the Dodgers and right-hander Matt Shoemaker (9-3, 4.09 ERA) for the Halos.