Sunday is an off-day in the National League Division Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks, as the Dodgers seek to rebound from their most one-sided home postseason loss since 1956.
The Diamondbacks routed the Dodgers, 11-2, Saturday at Dodger Stadium in the worst start of Clayton Kershaw’s illustrious 16-season major league career, as he allowed six runs and six hits in one-third of an inning.
“Just disappointing, embarrassing,” Kershaw said after becoming the first pitcher in Major League Baseball postseason history to allow five hits and five runs before recording an out. “I just feel like I let everybody down, the whole organization that looked to you to pitch well in Game 1.
“It’s a tough way to start the postseason.”
When asked how he felt, Kershaw said, “I feel fine.”
Game 2 of the best-of-five series will be played Monday at Dodger Stadium. Rookie Bobby Miller will pitch for the Dodgers while fellow right-hander Zac Gallen is set to start for Arizona.
Manager Dave Roberts said he will not change his plan to have Kershaw pitch in Game 4 Thursday, if the Dodgers extend the series with at least one victory in the next two games.
“I thought the stuff was good,” Roberts said. “Just some mistakes that they capitalized on.”
Ketel Marte led off with a double and scored on Corbin Carroll’s single. Tommy Pham followed with a single and Christian Walker a double which drove in Carroll from second. Gabriel Moreno hit a three-run homer, increasing Arizona’s lead to 5-0.
Kershaw retired Lourdes Gurriel Jr. on a ground ball to shortstop Miguel Rojas, then walked Alek Thomas and allowed a double to Evan Longoria which scored Thomas, prompting Roberts to replace Kershaw with rookie Emmet Sheehan after he allowed six runs and six hits in one-third of an inning.
“I think that obviously they took a lot of good swings,” Roberts said after the Dodgers’ most one-sided loss in a home postseason game since a 9-0 loss to the New York Yankees in Game 7 of the 1956 World Series at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field.
Merrill Kelly limited the Dodgers to three hits in 6 1/3 innings for the victory after going 0-11 against them, the most career losses without a win against a single opponent entering a postseason start against that team all-time, according to the sports analytics company Opta Sports.
“I think the main reason why today ended up better than they have in the past is the aggressiveness in the zone and being able to get ahead of people and not try to nitpick and get behind them,” Kelly said.
“That team over there, when you get behind them, they’re really good at controlling the zone and not swinging at pitches out of the zone. I made it a point to be aggressive. And with that nine-run lead, it made it a lot easier to do that.”
Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said he “had to answer a lot of questions about Merrill over past couple of days with the way the Dodgers have banged him around in the stadium.”
“I think he had a mindset going into this that he wasn’t going to let anything like that happen to him again,” said Lovullo, like Roberts a UCLA alumnus. “I think he took it personal and he went out there executed at a very, very high level.
“He was ahead in counts, and I think he controlled counts and controlled at-bats as good as we’ve seen him all year long.”
The Diamondbacks added three runs off Sheehan in the second inning. Carroll led off with a homer. Gurriel’s one-out double drove in Pham, who singled. Longoria’s sacrifice fly drove in Walker, who was hit by a pitch.
Thomas hit a solo homer in the seventh. Pham hit a solo homer in the eighth in front of a crowd announced at 51,653
Will Smith tripled in Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, who both walked, with the Dodgers’ runs in the eighth. It was the only hit allowed by three Arizona relievers in 3 2/3 innings.
The Diamondbacks out-hit the Dodgers 13-4.
Moreno’s home run extended the Diamondbacks’ streak of homering in postseason games to 14 dating back to 2007, matching the Dodgers (2020-21) and Houston Astros (2017-18) for the second-longest streak all-time.
The Yankees hold the record with 23 consecutive games from 2019-22.
The Sunday off day stems from the need to create some separation between the American League and National League series to fulfill Major League Baseball’s desire to have postseason games every day through the League Championship Series.
It is the Dodgers’ second scheduled Sunday off day since spring training play started Feb. 25. They also had a Sunday off day July 8, the day before the All-Star break due to a schedule quirk a day after completing a two-game series against the Los Angeles Angels.