Batters beware: Clayton Kershaw’s arsenal includes an eephus pitch

Los Angeles Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw had an interesting day Wednesday in a 2-1 win on the road at Atlanta.

He gave up a season high 10 hits to the Braves, struck out 10 batters, did not factor into the decision and was thrown out at home plate in the seventh inning by outfielder Jeff Francoeur. But maybe the most interesting moment came in the fourth inning when Kershaw threw an eephus pitch to Tyler Flowers.

[Pirates’ wild pitch lands in a weird place]

Kershaw is already one of the most difficult starting pitchers for batters to face in the major leagues. He has mastered a fastball that reaches into the mid 90s on the radar gun and mixes in a slider and curve. Now batters have to eephus? It just isn’t fair.

Flowers has been hitting everything early on this season. He has a .364 batting average. Maybe one of the best pitchers of this era was thinking he needed something extra to retire the Braves’ catcher.

Give Flowers credit for not taking the bait and swinging at the 46 mph pitch that was called a ball, but it didn’t prevent Kershaw from striking him out shortly thereafter. Flowers got a measure of revenge when he applied the tag at home off Francoeur’s throw as Kershaw tried to break up a 1-1 tie. 

[Aaron Hicks unleashes monster 105.5 mph throw from the outfield]

The Dodgers won in the 10th inning when Yasmani Grandal doubled to center field, driving in Enrique Hernandez with the go-ahead run. Kenley Jansen earned his seventh save.

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Kyle Ringo is a contributing writer to Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KyleRingo