It goes without saying that all eyes were on Clayton Kershaw in Friday night’s National League Division Series opener at Nationals Park in Washington DC – both those with complete and unwavering faith in the guy who many call ‘The best pitcher on the planet,’ and those who were lying in wait to jump on the 28-year-old Dallas, Texas native for his (perceived) inability to rise to the occasion once the calendar turns to October. Unfortunately, that latter group – those shortsighted skeptics who we only seem to hear from once the regular season ends and postseason play begins, were given first crack at Kershaw.

…or so they thought.

What those myopic critics – many who seem to be even-year / Bay Area biased – fail to realize is that although Kershaw has indeed struggled in his postseason outings, at least he is in the postseason. In fact, he has been there four consecutive seasons as a Division Champ and six of his nine major league seasons; as opposed to … say … Madison Bumgarner, who most Kershaw critics hail as baseball’s postseason messiah. Bumgarner has appeared in the postseason only four times in his eight major league seasons, although it’s impossible to argue that he had done exceptionally well in postseason play.

At first glance it may have appeared that the extremely competitive and ridiculously hard-working Kershaw fell right into the hands of his critics on Friday night in the Division Series opener, but in reality not only did Kershaw emerge victorious to give his team a 1-0 Division Series lead, he pitched brilliantly when he absolutely had to. And though going only five innings and struggling at times in the process is not what those of us who are blessed to watch Kershaw pitch every five days (as opposed to only in the postseason) are accustomed to seeing, he most certainly showed why he is a three-time Cy Young award winner and a former NL MVP regardless of his short outing.

After breezing through a 1-2-3 first inning in which he struck out the side on only 17 pitches, Kershaw labored from that point on. In fact, when he was replaced by Dodgers manager Dave Roberts after his five innings of work, Kershaw had thrown 101 pitches. Fortunately, 65 of them were for strikes and he managed to hold the NL East Champs to only three runs and eight hits while striking out seven and walking one – only his 12th walk of the entire season.

But in spite of his un-Kershaw-like performance on Friday night, he was very much in the heads of his opponents. In fact, Kershaw was able to pitch himself out of several huge jams that had Nationals’ hitters muttering to themselves.

“He made his pitches in on the plate. He didn’t make a pitch out over [the plate] to do a lot with,” said Nationals shortstop Danny Espinosa, who struck in each of his three at-bats against Kershaw on Friday night; each time with runners on base. “When someone does that, what are you going to do?”

Kershaw with a rare show of emotion after striking out Nationals shortstop Danny Espinoza to end the fifth inning, stranding runners at the corners and preserving his 4-3 lead. (Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)

Even though Dusty Baker’s team was undoubtedly very happy when Kershaw did not come back out to pitch the sixth inning, their elation quickly turned to utter dismay. Although the Washington Nationals were the proud owners of the second best bullpen in all of baseball during the 2016 regular season, they suddenly found themselves up against the best bullpen in all of baseball, and quickly found out why they had that distinction. Not only did Messrs. Joe Blanton, Grant Dayton, Pedro Baez and Kenley Jansen not allow a run in their combined four innings of relief work, they allowed only one hit and struck out four in the process, three by Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen, who Roberts called upon for a five-out save.

“When our starters go five, we never complain about it,” Jansen told reporters after the game. “We just go out there and do the job. We know it’s going to come down to us to keep this team going farther and farther.”

Indeed they do … and did.

“Obviously, tonight was not the start we had envisioned for Clayton,” Roberts said. “But for Joe to come in, Grant, Petey and obviously Kenley … that five-out save right there was big.”

And don’t think for one second that just because the 6′-5″ / 270-pound  gentle giant went 1.2 innings and made 27 pitches on Friday night that he isn’t prepared to go more than one inning again – and soon; perhaps as soon as Game-2.

“I know Kenley is open to whatever’s best for the team,” Roberts said. “Depending on the game situation, in the postseason, managers are typically a little more aggressive. That’s part of the reason I wanted to use him in one-plus situations all year, so there’s some familiarity with it.”

Don’t worry, Kersh – these guys have your back.

See you in Game-4.