For those old enough to remember, it was a phrase that was coined in the mid-sixties and one that was said only half jokingly: “There’s your run, Sandy.”

The Sandy is, of course, Dodgers Hall of Fame left-hander Sandy Koufax and the run was the one run of support generally needed to guarantee a win for the Brooklyn native and Dodger great. In fact. Koufax was a perfect 10-0 in one-run games during his 12-year Hall of Fame career – the most by any Dodger in franchise history and unquestionably the most that there will ever be, given the fact that they were all complete games – something that you rarely see in today’s game with strict pitch counts and specialized bullpen roles.

Although tweeted in jest at the time, truer words were never spoken.

As for 29-year-old Clayton Kershaw, he has been involved in nine one-run games during his 10-year MLB career, of which he was credited with the win in eight of them. In fact, according to our good friend Eric Stephen at True Blue LA, Kershaw has lost only one of the nine one-run games he started and that was in 2012. Also according to Stephen, Kershaw has won his last seven consecutive one-run games, which is simply mind blowing when you think about it – even if they were not all complete games.

But here again, for as good as Kid-K is, and he repeatedly lives up to his reputation of being ‘The best pitcher on the planet,’ he has a grand total of 25 complete games in his career and never had more than six complete games in any one season. He did, however, lead the majors in CGs in 2014 and 2015 with six and four respectively, yet further proof that it is a much different game today than if was during the Koufax years. In fact – and brace yourself for this – Koufax had a total of 137 complete games – one hundred and thirty seven of them – during his career. A different game indeed.

As he so often does, the fiercely competitive Dallas, Texas native and Dodgers 2006 first-round draft pick was more concerned about his team’s 10th consecutive win than he was about winning his MLB-best 15th game and lowering his ERA to 2.07, or about his seven shutout innings in which he allowed seven hits and one walk while striking out seven Chicago White Sox batters in the Dodgers 1-0 victory on Tuesday night.

“I was a little rusty tonight,” Kershaw said, about his first start since before the All-Star break “The fastball command wasn’t great, it got a little better as the game went. Nine days off definitely is not something I’m used to. I’m thankful to get out of that unscathed, and glad we won.”

It’s no secret that in addition to being the two best left-handers in Dodgers history, Sandy Koufax and Clayton Kershaw are also the best of friends. (Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)

But while Kershaw may not have liked the nine-day layoff, his manager most certainly did – rust notwithstanding.

“I still believe the layoff was the best thing for him, and for us, in the long term,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters after the game. “It’s a decision we made, and we still feel good about it.”

But for as remarkable as his gutsy one-run victory on Tuesday night was, – courtesy of a one out RBI single by Dodgers rookie phenom Cody Bellinger in the top of the first inning – Kershaw’s track record when his teammates give him two or fewer runs of support might surprise you. Even though we are constantly reminded about how ridiculously good Kershaw has been this season when given four or more runs of support, he is 24-46 in his career (.343) when given two or fewer runs of support. The remarkable thing about this statistic is that it makes that 8-1 thing pointed out by Eric Stephen all the more remarkable. Simply put, Kershaw is actually less likely to win when given two runs of support than when he is given only one, which is just plain nuts.

The good news is that it is an extremely rare day when the Dodgers score only one or even two runs per game. In fact, their current 5.11 runs-per-game average ranks fifth in all of baseball and is a huge reason why they currently own the best record in all of baseball at 65-29. The other reasons are, of course, their MLB-leading starting rotation (3.09 ERA) and MLB second-best bullpen (2.92 ERA) behind only the Cleveland Indians (2.89 ERA).

The bottom line is that even though a 1-0 game is a 1-0 game, a 1-0 game today is a completely different animal than a 1-0 game during the Koufax era. That being said, the Dodgers we’ll gladly take a 1-0 game any day, every day.

…as long as they’re the team with the one, of course.

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(Author’s note: Although now nearly six years old, this September 6, 2011 article by former Sports Illustrated columnist Joe Posnanski about 1-0 games is a great read).