LOS ANGELES – After losing the first two games of their series against the Dodgers, the Braves had the unenviable assignment of facing ace of aces Clayton Kershaw in Thursday night’s finale. Things went as you might have anticipated.
The Dodgers scored two runs in the first three innings — including a homer by Braves nemesis Yasiel Puig — and held on for a 2-1 win to complete a series sweep as Kershaw won his 10th consecutive decision with his fifth complete game in that span.
The Braves scratched across a run on three hits in the ninth before Evan Gattis grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the game with two runners on base.
Julio Teheran (10-7) pitched well enough to win most nights, allowing two runs, five hits and three walks with nine strikeouts, and retiring 17 of 20 batters after Puig’s third-inning solo homer.
But most nights don’t include those when the counterpart is Kershaw (13-2), the majors’ best and hottest pitcher, who is well on his way to winning what would be his third National League Cy Young award in four seasons. Kershaw scattered nine hits with no walks and nine strikeouts to improve to 10-0 with an 0.94 ERA in his past 11 starts.
The Braves are 9-13 in their past 22 games including 0-7 in games decided by one run. After going 6-5 in a homestand against the Phillies, Marlins and Padres coming out of the All-Star break, they started an eight-game West Coast trip getting swept by the West-leading Dodgers, who’ve won six in a row including a sweep of the Giants to regain first place.
The Braves’ five hits through the first five innings were more than Kershaw had allowed in six of his past 10 starts, but all five were singles and the only runner to advance past first base in that stretch occurred when Gattis and Ryan Doumit had consecutive singles to start the fifth inning.
Gattis reached second, then was out when the next batter, Andrelton Simmons, grounded to third base to start a 5-4 double play.
The Braves didn’t threaten again until the ninth inning, when B.J. Upton and Tommy La Stella hit consecutive one-out singles to put runners on the corners. With a crowd of 51,163 stirred up, Kershaw struck out Freddie Freeman for the second out before Justin Upton grounded to third base and beat out the throw to drive in a run.
It was a close play and Dodgers manager Don Mattingly appealed. After review, the play was upheld, the shutout was gone and the Braves had the potential tying and go-ahead runs on second and first with Evan Gattis up.
Kershaw won his sixth consecutive home start and moved to 6-1 with a 1.57 ERA in eight starts this season at Dodger Stadium, where he’s collected 82 strikeouts with just five walks in 63 innings.
Kershaw had no decisions in four previous regular-season starts against Braves – all in 2009-2011 — despite .189 opponents’ average and 2.45 ERA in those games. Before Thursday, they were the only National League team he hadn’t gotten a win against. In fact, he has multiple wins against every other NL team.
He was 1-0 with a 0.69 ERA and .130 opponents’ average in two starts against the Braves in the 2013 division series. Kershaw had 12 strikeouts in seven innings of a Game 1 win, then got no decision when he pitched six innings on short rest in Game 4, allowing three hits and two unearned runs in that Dodgers clinching win.
Teheran gave up a run before recording his second out in the game, never a good thing when facing Kershaw. Dee Gordon led off with a single and Puig walked before Adrian Gonzalez doubled to the right-center gap for a 1-0 lead.
Right fielder Jason Heyward missed his third consecutive start with back stiffness, and his absence was felt when Doumit fielded the double and bounced a throw to cutoff man Simmons. His throw to the plate still was in time for a close play if Gattis hadn’t dropped it.
Puig’s third-inning homer on a 1-and-2 slider with one out pushed the lead to 2-0. He also walked and hit a line-drive double off the center field wall, giving Puig a .511 average (23-for-45) with eight extra-base hits (three homers) and eight RBIs in 11 regular-season and playoff games vs. Braves, including at least one hit in each game.
The Braves had a scoring chance in the fourth after B.J. Upton’s leadoff single, but it didn’t last long. Upton stole second base but was tagged out when his momentum took him past the base and his foot briefly came off the bag as shortstop Hanely Ramirez kept the tag on it. It was the second time this season that Upton was caught stealing in that manner, otherwise he’d have 20 stolen bases.
For a write-thru version of this story complete with postgame quotes, go to MyAJC.com or use this link.
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