Clayton Kershaw extends scoreless streak to 37 innings in Dodgers win
Take a look around the league with Big League Stew’s daily wrap up. We’ll hit on all of the biggest moments from the day that you may have missed, while providing highlights, photos and interesting stats.
It seems we’ve been down this road before.
As a matter of fact, it was just last Sunday that Dodgers right-hander Zack Greinke had his 45 2/3 inning scoreless streak snapped two starts short of equaling or surpassing Orel Hershiser’s MLB record. Now it’s the big lefty’s turn. Reigning NL MVP and Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw is on a streak of his own that is now approaching that same historical mark.
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The Dodgers ace tossed eight scoreless innings, limiting the Angels to two hits and a walk in the 3-1 victory on Saturday. That extended his consecutive scoreless innings streak up to 37, which means he could surpass Greinke’s streak next Friday in Pittsburgh. Greinke’s streak, by the way, ranks sixth all-time.
That’s weird too, but it’s pretty much true because that pesky walk was Kershaw’s first since July 3.
There was also an interesting underlying story here, as Kershaw and Mike Trout became the first pair of reigning MVP to face off against each other. It went about like this for Trout.
Trout finished the game 0-for-4, including a ninth-inning strikeout against Kenley Jansen.
Advantage, Kershaw. Advantage, Dodgers.
DUDA DESTROYS THE NATS
The New York Mets have some shiny new offensive toys with Yoenis Cespedes, Juan Uribe and Kelly Johnson in town. On Saturday, though, it was one of their old toys who stepped up to carry the offense. First baseman Lucas Duda homered twice and doubled home the game-winner in the eighth inning as New York topped the Washington Nationals 3-2.
For Duda, the home runs were his 19th and 20th of the season and his seventh and eighth over the last seven games. In fact, until the double, Duda’s most recent eight hits were all big flys. That’s called a power surge, and it couldn’t have come at a better time for New York.
Oh the hill, Jacob deGrom did his thing, holding Washington to two runs over six innings. Honestly, the way he’s been throwing lately, that almost sounds like a step back. But it was good enough to keep the Mets alive in a big game.
With Saturday’s victory they’re only one game behind Washington in the NL East. They’re also making up ground quickly in the wild-card hunt, which would be their fallback option if the division doesn’t work out. With Matt Harvey, Noah Syndegaard and deGrom holding down that rotation, they definitely won’t be going away.
PHILLIES STAY HOT, CLOBBER BRAVES
Break up the Philadelphia Phillies.
Is it too soon or too late to make that joke? That’s the question, because despite trading away Cole Hamels and Jonathan Papelbon ahead of the non-waiver trade deadline, the Phillies remain the hottest team in the National League.
With their 12-2 blowout victory against the Atlanta Braves, the Phillies have now won 12 of 14 games since the All-Star break. That would be a pretty remarkable stretch for baseball’s best teams. It’s even more so for Philadelphia, which entered the break at 29-62.
It was the young Phillies setting the pace atop their lineup. Cesar Hernandez, Odubel Herrera and Maikel Franco combined for seven hits and five runs scored, including a Herrera home run. Veterans Ryan Howard, Domonic Brown and Freddy Galvis cleaned up right after, combining for six hits and six runs driven in. It was a balanced attack in support of rookie Aaron Nola, who picked up his second career victory.
The Phillies will now go for the four-game weekend sweep on Sunday.
ASTROS DOMINATE BEHIND KEUCHEL, CORREA AND CONGER
The Houston Astros were led by a three-man band in Saturday’s 9-2 win against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
All-Star and potential Cy Young candidate Dallas Keuchel was lights out again on the hill, tossing six innings of two-run ball to pick up his AL-best 13th victory. In doing so, he made Astros franchise history by pitching at least six innings in his 33rd consecutive start. That covers a lot of ground and some terrific pitchers. He’s also been really good at Minute Maid Park all season.
Meanwhile, Carlos Correa continued his stellar rookie campaign with book end home runs. He started the scoring a with a solo home run in the first, then he capped it with a two-run homer in the eighth scoring new Astro Carlos Gomez. The multi-homer game was the first in Correa’s young career, but certainly not the last.
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That brings us to back up catcher Hank Conger, who was actually the star of the game. Conger homered twice, including a fourth-inning grand slam, and drove in five.
As noted in the above tweet, the Astros now lead the AL West by three games.
Want to see more from Saturday’s slate of games? Check out our scoreboard.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
