Eight

Tuesday, October 24, 2017. Game 1 of the World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Houston Astros, the first match-up between these two franchises for the Championship. Leading all of baseball in wins, the Dodgers secured home field advantage throughout the playoffs, but the starting temperature of tonight’s game would have misled many that this series was leading off deep in the heart of Texas; coming in about as hot as Aroldis Chapman’s fastball, Game 1 was poised to feel less like Fall Classic and more like midseason baseball in the grueling summer months. Pitchers and hitters alike are no stranger to the fact that the ball jumps off the bat while that sun warms the Southern California stadium, but pitcher-nightmare turns hitter-futility as day makes way for night.

Two aces on the mound, both former Cy Young Award winners (both in the conversation to add another piece of hardware this offseason), both getting their first taste of the big stage after experiencing the dog-days of their franchises. The narrative for Clayton Kershaw has been how great he has been in the regular season, but how average he has been in the postseason, and how terrible he has especially been in the 7th inning or later in the postseason. Kershaw has seen his team to the NLCS in five of his ten big league seasons, but 2017 marks his first time getting over that hump. In the opposing dugout, Dallas Keuchel has been masterful the past several years for Houston, but he has never been a part of a team that has had any postseason success.

Clayton climbs the hill, peering over the upper laces of his expanded glove, a lion ready to pounce on his prey. Wasting no time, he attacks leadoff man and All-Star center fielder George Springer, going for the kill with a strikeout swinging. If you blinked, you may have missed the rest of the quick feast, as Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve forced the Dodgers ace to deliver a real sweat-inducing nine pitches.

Fresh off being minted NLCS Co-MVP with teammate Justin Turner, Chris Taylor strode to the plate knowing that his team’s best chance of winning this game involved tiring Keuchel early in order to force A.J. Hinch’s hand and call to the bullpen. From Opening Day to Game 5 of the NLCS, the storyline has been how patient the Dodgers hitters have been, laying off not-bad-but-not-strike pitches and forcing reluctant pitchers to challenge them with something in the zone, or else they would pass the baton to the next man up in the lineup. During the regular season, the Dodgers were tied for second in the National League with 3.93 pitches seen per plate appearance; during the postseason, they have been second overall with 4.20 pitches seen per plate appearance. The winning formula for Los Angeles has been patience and working up the pitch count. So…

On Keuchel’s first career World Series pitch, Taylor unloads on a breaking ball that traveled 60 feet 6 inches to the plate, before getting swept off its feet and carried 447 feet in the opposite direction, just barely missing a free ride out of the ballpark over the left field stands. Barrels may be overrated, but if Taylor didn’t square up that ball, Houston might have a serious problem if he does.

To clarify the initial statement regarding the Dodgers winning formula: patience drives up pitch count which chases dominant starter which brings in LA-friendly bullpen, or just score early and often and forget about patience. 1 pitch. 1 swing. 1 run.

From there, both pitchers would find their groove, Kershaw allowing his first hit to former-and-forgettable-Dodger Josh Reddick in the third inning, a sharply-hit ball that snuck between a diving Bellinger and Forsythe. Keuchel would give up two singles before the lineup flipped, but Dodger hitters fell victim to what the Astros ace has been one of the best at doing: forcing groundouts into double plays.

Cruising into the fourth inning, Kershaw gets Bregman to a 1-1 count. In his previous at bat, the young third baseman flew out to relatively-deep-but-not-threatening center field. This time, however, the threat was real courtesy of a poorly-located 93 mph fastball that proved Bregman knows how to hit the ball hard and far off a tee. For the twenty or so seconds he took his victory lap, it appeared the narrative was looming large how number 22 can’t deliver in the clutch, and the Astros were at the top of their dugout, hungry to take a bite out of the man who had already fanned five. For the love of all you hold dear, throw that narrative away. Clayton stepped up, striking out Altuve and Carlos Correa looking, before adding Yuli Gurriel to the mix with a swinging strike three.

Just as his counterpart had been cruising, so too had Keuchel, working his way into the 6th with only the first pitch mistake to Taylor to start the game. Taylor proved to give him troubles again, this time working a five pitch walk. I guess you could combine the two winning formulas of patience and attacking with a fury. With two outs, Red October was yearning for a pitch to drive, after just missing on his prior at bat that resulted in a foul fly out to first. Flashing back to the NLCS against the Cubs, Turner’s walk-off home run came on the anniversary of Kirk Gibson’s impossible shot 29 years earlier. One of the key differences, however, was that Turner’s came in the Championship Series, whereas Gibson’s came in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series. Turner didn’t have to wait long to provide an encore to his already-historic postseason performance. Facing a 1-2 count, Turner got a knuckle-scraper he launched as a skyscraper that ended a wall-scraper. How far did the ball travel? Just look at the distance to left center field, and add “one foot” to that mark. The NLCS Co-MVPs had given the Dodgers a 3-1 lead heading into the seventh, accounting for all of the runs between themselves.

Hold your horses, this game was headed into the seventh inning, and Kershaw was still on the mound, lugging behind him an ERA north of 20.00 from the seventh-on. But the Los Angeles horse proved this was behind him because, guess what, his World Series seventh inning ERA is now 0.00. Things started unsettlingly as Altuve singled under the laid-out glove of Turner. On the next pitch, Turner leapt for a chopper from Correa, having plenty of time to get the force at second, but not enough to turn the double play. One pitch after that, returned-to-action Corey Seager fielded a cleanly hit grounder but failed to get a solid grip on the transfer, fortunately still recording the out at second. With two outs and a man on first, veteran catcher Brian McCann delivered a deep blast to center field, just deep enough to make Taylor take a couple of steps back before sealing the seventh inning. Kershaw had overcome his greatest nemesis, a burden lifted as he embraced manager Dave Roberts and pitching coach Rick Honeycutt, signalling the end of his night.

Dodgers hitters got their wish, chasing Keuchel from the game with two outs in the bottom-half of the inning, the final dagger coming off the bat of Seager with his second line drive single of the night. However, bats were silenced the later the evening got. No matter, the three runs provided were more than enough for Kershaw to protect before handing the ball to a revolutionized Brandon Morrow and an indomitable Kenley Jansen.

In under two and a half hours, the Dodgers won their first World Series game since they won it all in 1988. Keuchel pitched one hell of a game, delivering 6.2 solid innings, only one walk and six hits, but that walk proved to be too costly as it contributed to his three earned runs. Keuchel looked like a Cy Young winner, but he just made two or three mistakes more than his opponent. The final line for Dodgers pitching:

Congratulations on an incredible performance, Clayton. You helped carry This Team to This Point. The ultimate goal has yet to be met, but it is impossible to get there without first getting here:

Eight.