While the Los Angeles Dodgers poured onto the field after Mookie Betts turned a World Series-clinching double in Game 7 against the Toronto Blue Jays, a confused Clayton Kershaw didn’t realize the game was over. <\/p>\n
“I had no idea we won the World Series,” he admitted to Betts on Thursday’s On Base podcast. “I was warming up [in the bullpen]. I saw [Vladimir Guerrero Jr.] hit the double so I started getting going faster. I didn’t see that [Isiah Kiner-Falefa] bunted. Addison Barger’s on first with the walk. So Alejandro Kirk grounds into the double play and I’m thinking, ‘OK two outs, run scored, game’s tied. They’ve got a lefty Daulton Varsho up, I’m in the game.’ And [bullpen coach Josh Bard’s] just looking in my face like, ‘Why are you throwing? It’s over, we won the World Series.’ He’s the one telling me we won the World Series. I was like, ‘Oh, OK, that’s great.'”<\/p>\n
Here’s how the bottom of the 11th inning played out. <\/p>\n
Yoshinobu Yamamoto started the inning on the mound, having already gone 1.2 innings one day after pitching six innings as the Game 6 starter. The bottom of the 11th got off to a rocky start, as Guerrero doubled and Kiner-Falefa moved him to third on a sacrifice bunt. Barger then walked on four pitches but Kirk grounded to shortstop, where Betts raced over to second for the force out, whipped a throw to first and ended the game.<\/p>\n
Kershaw, 37, played a limited role for the Dodgers in the postseason, making just two overall appearances and giving up six hits and five runs in 2.1 innings. He did played an important role in Game 3’s marathon, 18-inning win for the Dodgers, recording an out in the top of the 12th with the bases loaded to end the threat.<\/p>\n
The future Hall of Famer played a major role during the regular season, however, making 22 starts throughout the season while a number of the team’s key starters dealt with injury. He went 11-2 on the year with a 3.36 ERA, 1.22 WHIP and 84 strikeouts in 112.2 innings.<\/p>\n
Kershaw held the line during the regular season, his teammates handled business in the playoffs and Bard made sure Kershaw knew that he was a champion for a third time when Game 7 ended. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While the Los Angeles Dodgers poured onto the field after Mookie Betts turned a World Series-clinching double in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-266879","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}