{"id":557298,"date":"2026-02-06T05:57:51","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T05:57:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/557298\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T05:57:51","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T05:57:51","slug":"dodgers-rewind-clayton-kershaw-dominates-in-2013-nlds-game-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/557298\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers rewind: Clayton Kershaw dominates in 2013 NLDS Game 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Repetition is the root of commonality, but there was actually a time when the Dodgers weren\u2019t seen as the prohibitive favorites heading into every playoff series. The stage was quite different back in 2013. Largely propelled by first-year impactful performances from Yasiel Puig and Zack Greinke, a Dodgers squad without the depth we\u2019ve grown accustomed to returned to the postseason for the first time in four years to play a 96-win Braves team. After a playoff hiatus towards the end of the Brian Cox tenure, Atlanta was making the postseason for the third time in the last four years and was the more experienced team.<\/p>\n

One big advantage the Dodgers had over the Braves in that particular series was in the form of high-end starting pitching. While Atlanta had a very successful campaign with the likes of Julio Teheran, Mike Minor, and Kris Medlen \u2014 the latter faced Clayton Kershaw in Game 1. Los Angeles had two established aces and a number three in Hyun Jin-Ryu that rivaled any team in that period. Now, the depth after those three was very shaky, which led Kershaw to start Game 4 on short rest even though Los Angeles had the lead in the series, but that\u2019s getting ahead of ourselves.<\/p>\n

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Back then, when pitchers still hit, the Braves only trailed the Rockies in slugging percentage among National League teams, finishing the year at .402. Those numbers were a bit worse against southpaws, which made sense given how lefty-heavy that Braves team was at the top, with the likes of Freddie Freeman, Jason Heyward, and Brian McCann.<\/p>\n

On the road, against a tough opponent, and at the height of his powers, coming off what would be crowned his second Cy Young win in the last three years, Kershaw dominated in a manner that we don\u2019t even see from the aces these days, pushed well beyond the currently acceptable levels, finishing his outing with a whopping 124 pitches.<\/p>\n

Setting the tone early, Kershaw finished the opening frame with bookend strikeouts against Jason Heyward and Freddie Freeman, utilizing that patented down-and-away slider to lefties to punch out Heyward and then blowing a heater by Freeman. Back then, the Kershaw had an easy 95-mph heater he could turn to, something he had to adapt to being without for the second half of his career.<\/p>\n

Scoring in every inning between the second and fourth, the Dodgers took a commanding 5-0 lead that felt insurmountable with Kershaw on the mound, particularly with a couple of shutdown frames in the second and third. Trailing 5-1, the Braves had an opportunity to get back into things with Andrelton Simmons up, two on and two out, but once again, that slider bailed him out. Kershaw threw a down-and-in breaking ball to the Braves\u2019 shortstop, who couldn\u2019t help but swing on top of it, thus ending the threat.<\/p>\n

Kershaw would leave that game with 12 punchouts, which would remain his career high in the postseason for many years until a marvelous eight-inning performance against the Brewers in 2020, in which he recorded 13 Ks, eventually helping the Dodgers win their first championship that year.<\/p>\n

Starting a trend that would remain for the better part of Kershaw\u2019s prime, the Dodgers\u2019 ace was called upon to pitch on three days rest in Game 4 of this series, as the Dodgers hoped to avoid having to go back to Atlanta for a Game 5. Holding his own as he would routinely do in such instances, Kershaw tossed six strong with two unearned runs in a game ultimately decided in the late innings by a Juan Uribe go-ahead homer.<\/p>\n

That Dodgers team faltered in the NLCS, but for where it was in its contention window, it had a decent run, and if it even got as far as the NLCS, it owed a lot of it to Kershaw, who played a humongous role in this series against an equally strong Braves team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Repetition is the root of commonality, but there was actually a time when the Dodgers weren\u2019t seen as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[5,68033,2328,2304,4,2305,2303],"class_list":{"0":"post-557298","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb-postseason","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-dodgers-rewind","10":"tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","11":"tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-mlb-playoffs","14":"tag-mlb-postseason"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116022154590425572","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}