Kershaw Continues His Dominance, Marlins Fall 6-0

I’m sure we can all agree that this year hasn’t exactly been a good season for the Miami Marlins. With the team losing back-to-back games against the hottest team in baseball, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Marlins took the field today in hopes of evening out the 4 game series. A win today could have given the Marlins a little bit of a spark to finish out the season strong. Defeating the Dodgers today would’ve meant that the Marlins offense was also able to defeat Clayton Kershaw, who, in my opinion is the best pitcher in baseball.

Early on in the game it seemed as if Kershaw was off. In the first two innings, Kershaw was clearly struggling with his control, as the Marlins had multiple runners on base giving them an excellent opportunity to score. Despite given the chance of putting some runs up on the board, the team was unable to convert base runners to runs.

Throughout the first 3 innings of this ballgame, Marlins rookie pitcher, Henderson Alvarez was good as usual. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for this Dodgers offense to get going. It all started in the fourth inning with who other than rookie sensation, Yasiel Puig. Leading off the fourth, Puig wasted little time at the plate. He swung at the very first pitch from Alvarez, darting the ball to the deepest part of the park. With the ball bouncing off the top of the wall, Puig had himself a lead-off double. Once Puig was able to reach base, the floodgates were opened.  Despite being able to get the next two batters out, Alvarez hit Skip Schumaker and walked Juan Uribe, which in turn loaded the bases. With Kershaw up to bat, the Marlins were hopeful that Alvarez could get out of the inning without giving up a run. That isn’t exactly what happened as Kershaw was able to get a base hit, scoring Puig. With the Dodgers up 1-0, Carl Crawford came up to bat with the bases still loaded. Much like Kershaw, Crawford was able to bring in a run, however, the only difference was that Crawford was able to bring in two runs, doubling to right field, before Nick Punto flied out to right to end the inning. The next inning wasn’t any better for the Marlins, as the Dodgers were able to put up two more runs.

With a 5 run lead and Kershaw exerting his dominance, the rest of the game was smooth sailing for Los Angeles. Puig added on to the lead, after hitting a sacrifice fly to right field scoring Adrian Gonzalez.

The ninth inning had a special treat for the few fans that remained in Marlins Park, as the Dodgers sent out newly signed relief pitcher Brian Wilson. Wilson, who was making his season debut with L.A., looked quite impressive. In his lone inning of work, Wilson struck out two batters, whiling giving up just one hit.

Outside of the Marlins struggling offense, the main story today was Clayton Kershaw. Not only was he able to pitch 8 shutout innings, today marked Kershaw’s 21^st game of the season in which he has allowed 2 runs or less. With yet another dazzling performance, Kershaw is continuing to prove to everyone why he is the best pitcher in the major league.

Thanks for Reading!