Kershaw fans 13 as Dodgers win
LOS ANGELES — Clayton Kershaw struck out 13 while delivering eight innings of threehit ball, Mookie Betts snapped a scoreless tie with a two-out, tworun double in the fifth, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Milwaukee Brewers 3-0 to sweep their NL wild-card series on Thursday night.
The eight-time West champion Dodgers advanced to the NL Division Series in Arlington, Texas.
Kershaw’s strikeouts were a playoff career high and the most by a Dodgers pitcher in the postseason since his mentor Sandy Koufax had 15 in Game 1 of the 1963 World Series against the Yankees. Kershaw issued his lone walk to Luis Urias in the eighth and promptly picked him off when a diving Urias couldn’t get back to the bag. The Brewers lost their challenge of the call.
Kershaw, a three-time NL Cy Young Award winner, showed none of the fallibility that’s plagued his postseason career. He came in with a 9-11 record and 4.43 ERA in the playoffs.
He had his way with the beleaguered Brewers. He gave up singles to Jedd Gyorko, Urias and Keston Hiura.
Neither team managed to hit a ball hard as Brandon Woodruff and Kershaw dueled through four innings. Only two of the Dodgers’ nine hitters didn’t strike out during that span; five of the Brewers didn’t.
Padres 11, Cardinals 9
In San Diego, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Wil Myers each hit two home runs and Manny Machado also connected for the San Diego Padres, who rallied to beat the St. Louis Cardinals 11-9 Thursday night to force a deciding Game 3 in their NL wild-card series.
San Diego’s powerful offense finally burst to life after slumbering through a 7-4 loss in Game 1 and a listless first five innings Thursday night.
Tatis and Myers are the second teammates in postseason history with multiple homers in the same game, joining Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees in Game 3 of the 1932 World Series — including Ruth’s famed “called shot.”
The Padres are the first team in postseason history with five home runs from the sixth inning onward in a game.
Tatis, a 21-year-old budding superstar and NL MVP contender along with Machado, had a breakout game after struggling for much of the final two weeks of the regular season and with runners on base in this series.
After striking out with the bases loaded in the fourth, Tatis homered in consecutive innings and drove in five runs. Tatis’ father played for the Cardinals for three seasons during his 11-season big league career.
Myers hit a go-ahead leadoff shot in the seventh off losing pitcher Daniel Ponce de Leon and a two-run homer in the eighth.
It was the Padres’ first postseason win at Petco Park, which opened in 2004. The first four losses were to St. Louis, which eliminated the Padres in the division series in 2005 and 2006 — the last time the Padres made the postseason — as well as in 1996, when the Padres played at Jack Murphy Stadium.
Braves 5, Reds 0
In Atlanta, Ian Anderson dazzled in another shutout performance for Atlanta, and the Braves won a playoff series for the first time in almost two decades by sweeping the light-hitting Cincinnati Reds with a 5-0 victory Thursday.
Ronald Acuña Jr. had three hits for the NL East champions, including a run-scoring double in the fifth.
After winning Wednesday’s series opener 1-0 in 13 innings, Atlanta broke open Game 2 on two-run homers by Marcell Ozuna and Adam Duvall off Raisel Iglesias in the eighth.
Anderson struck out nine in six innings as the Braves snapped their record-tying string of losses in 10 consecutive postseason rounds since their last playoff series win in 2001. Atlanta will face Miami or the Chicago Cubs in the NL Division Series in Houston.
A’s 6, White Sox 4
in Oakland, Calif., the Athletics ended 14 years of postseason futility, riding Chad Pinder’s go-ahead, two-run single in the fifth inning and repeated costly walks by Chicago’s relievers to rally past the White Sox 6-4 on Thursday and win the decisive third game of their AL wild-card round series.
The AL West champions lost the opener, then won on consecutive days and advanced to a Division Series against the rival Houston Astros starting Monday in Los Angeles. The winner of that matchup faces the New York Yankees or Tampa Bay for a spot in the World Series.
Sean Murphy hit a two-run homer in the fourth against Codi Heuer as wives and families cheered from suites high above the diamond. Oakland stopped a nine-game losing streak in winner-take-all postseason games, a major league record that dated to the 1973 World Series.