There have undoubtedly been hundreds of different adjectives already used to describe the Dodgers brutally 10-9 loss to the Cardinals in Game-1 of the National League Division Series on Friday evening, so let’s just leave it at that – it was a brutally loss. But buried in that loss was something that has to make Dodger fans feel at least a little better – A.J. Ellis’s season-long slump is over. Not just a little over but way over.

After singles in the second and fourth innings, Ellis drove an Adam Wainwright 90-MPH sinker (that didn’t sink) six rows deep into the Left Field Pavilion for a two-run home run to give the Dodgers a 6-1 lead and send the Cardinals ace and 20-game winner to the showers. Aside from Ellis’s two home-run / four-RBI game in Chicago on September 19, it was his strongest offensive game of the season.

Ellis went 4 for 5 on the night with three singles and this fifth inning home run.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Unfortunately, the Dodgers own ace and 21-game winner Clayton Kershaw was unable to hold that lead and hit the showers himself after squandering what every one of the 54,265 in attendance at Dodger Stadium thought would be a surefire Kershaw win. But reminiscent of last year’s devastating Game-6 NLCS loss to these same Cardinals, the soon-to-be 2014 NL Cy Young Award winner absolutely fell apart in the seventh inning allowing eight runs on eight hits (including two solo home runs) while walking none and striking out 10 in 6.2 innings of work. In fact, during that dreadful inning, Kershaw gave up four consecutive singles, followed by a strikeout, followed by a double, followed by a strikeout, followed by a double that ended his night.

To make matters worse, Kershaw’s relief, 26-year-old rookie right-hander Pedro Baez, followed with a walk and then a three-run home run to Cardinals slugger Matt Holliday to add yet another earned run to Kershaw’s ledger.

As was expected, Kershaw was extremely hard on himself for what was arguably one of the worst outings of his stellar career.

“I feel terrible,” said Kershaw to reporters after the game. “Who knows if they even want me to pitch [game-4 or game-5] at this point. It’s an awful feeling to let your team down. They got me runs and I couldn’t hold it. As a starting pitcher, it’s your game to lose and I did. That’s not a good feeling. We have a great team. If I don’t get in the way, we have a good chance.”

Kershaw struck out the side in the top of the fourth inning, including Matt Holliday. Unfortunately for the Dodgers, Holliday would homer in his next at-bat off of Dodgers reliever Pedro Baez. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Although it’s easy to say “turn the page and move on,” such a devastating loss by the best pitcher on the planet may be a little difficult to do, but if anyone can do it, it’s Dodgers right-hander Zack Greinke who gets the ball later this evening for Game-2 of the series. What the Dodgers absolutely cannot afford to do is to roll into St. Louis down two games to none. Hopefully A.J. Ellis can continue to swing his hot bat to prevent that from happening