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Clayton Kershaw strikes out 12 over seven innings, allowing just one run on three hits.
ATLANTA – There’s a certain generation of Yankee fan that gets melancholy over the fact that Don Mattingly never tasted the World Series glory that started washing over the Bronx in 1996, the year after he retired.
But if Mattingly’s Dodgers keep playing the way they did Thursday night in a 6-1 victory over the Braves in their National League division series opener, Donnie Baseball may finally get to the World Series after all.
Clayton Kershaw, the likely NL Cy Young Award winner, allowed one run and three hits in seven innings while striking out 12 and walking three, ensuring that Mattingly’s postseason debut as a manager would be a rousing success. Adrian Gonzalez hit a two-run homer, Yasiel Puig reached base three times and A.J. Ellis smacked two doubles.
Kershaw, the likely NL Cy Young Award winner, negotiated brief rough patches early on, but mostly dominated the Braves. Atlanta struck out more than any other team in the NL and Kershaw, who led the lead in strikeouts, exploited his advantage. From the fourth into the sixth, Kershaw struck out six consecutive hitters and he whiffed nine of the final 11 hitters he faced.
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Adrian Gonzalez hits a two-run home run to put the Dodgers up 4-0.
Atlanta starter Kris Medlen had allowed only four runs in 36 innings in the month of September when he was the NL’s pitcher of the month. But he had allowed that many runs by the middle of the third inning Thursday and was out of the game without getting an out in the fifth.
Mattingly got only one ride in October as a player, that wild ’95 division series against the Mariners where he was so great and the disappointment of Seattle’s comeback victory so bitter. He went back to the postseason as a Yankee coach, but never reached the heights the Dodgers crave now.
But Mattingly is making sure he does not dwell on those previous disappointments amidst the chaos of October. Asked before the game about the possibility of finally making the World Series, Mattingly replied: “Well, obviously it would be really nice to be able to do that. But, for me, it’s part of what you cut out.
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“Those are the kind of thoughts that you kind of want to make sure stay on the outside, not let that come into the dugout, not let that be a part of the decision making.”
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Jason Heyward shows off his frustration after striking out in the fifth inning.
Mattingly allowed he was “anxious” heading into the series, but added, “I think I should be.” The Dodgers likely did plenty to soothe him pretty quickly in the first game of the best-of-five series.
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