© Tim Heitman | 2020 Oct 15
The favorite team is of San Francisco Giants fans is self-evident. Their second favorite team? Whoever is playing the Dodgers.
On Thursday night, as it was the previous three nights, that was the Atlanta Braves, who took a commanding 3-1 lead in a 10-2 shellacking of Los Angeles in the National League Championship Series.
Again the Dodgers finished with the top record in the National League in 2020. Again, for what would be the eighth season in a row, they find themselves on the brink of being eliminated from the postseason without a World Series title.
And again, it was Clayton Kershaw who was on the mound when everything went to hell for LA.
One of the greatest pitchers in baseball history floundered again, bringing his career postseason ERA to 4.31, the worst among all pitchers who have thrown more than 100 innings in the playoffs. Kershaw entered the sixth with the game tied 1-1, but allowed two runs on three consecutive hits to start the inning, leaving the game with the Dodgers down 3-1.
When the inning eventually ended, the Dodgers found themselves in a 7-1 hole in which they would not recover. Kershaw allowed seven hits and four earned runs in 5+ innings.
If you thought Twitter might spare Kershaw this one time, you’d be mistaken:
https://twitter.com/SNstats/status/1316928489908588545
https://twitter.com/MrMichaelLee/status/1316922236239073282
https://twitter.com/MrMichaelLee/status/1316924430514331648
https://twitter.com/ThreeTwoEephus/status/1316924006864457728
https://twitter.com/BaySean/status/1316924253678276608
https://twitter.com/enosarris/status/1316921081006096387
https://twitter.com/LOLKNBR/status/1316933230294147078
https://twitter.com/JimRussellSD/status/1316946681095749635
https://twitter.com/mattblively/status/1316925733109989378
https://twitter.com/SeanCunningham/status/1316923141260759040
https://twitter.com/lindseyadler/status/1316921996500963331
https://twitter.com/sandeepchandok/status/1316922574367055872
https://twitter.com/GiraffeNeckMarc/status/1316921815776874501
https://twitter.com/AndrewSimonMLB/status/1316923673555701761
https://twitter.com/FabianArdaya/status/1316923390414946305
https://twitter.com/MarkZuckerman/status/1316923317190823937
https://twitter.com/ESPNStatsInfo/status/1316924154776555522
