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Kershaw owns Harper in battle of MLB's best

Kirby Lee / USA TODAY Sports

Hours before his scheduled start Monday against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Washington Nationals right-hander Stephen Strasburg was scratched, the one-time All-Star felled by discomfort in his upper back.

In all likelihood, his teammates probably envy him. He didn't have to face Clayton Kershaw.

Kershaw, in the midst of one of the greatest statistical seasons in MLB history, spent Monday tormenting Bryce Harper and the rest of the Nationals lineup, fanning the reigning MVP in all three of their matchups while allowing just one run over seven innings to lift Los Angeles to a 4-1 victory and improve to 11-1 in 2016.

Though the three-time Cy Young award winner surrendered six hits, his most since May 7, Kershaw fanned eight and didn't issue a base on balls for the eighth time in 15 starts this season, improving his superhuman strikeout-to-walk ratio to 141:7 through a league-high 115 innings.

Then again, everything about him is superhuman.

Harper, the 23-year-old who boasts a 1.046 OPS since the start of 2015, would probably agree with that assessment. In 15 career plate appearances against Kershaw, Harper is 1-for-15 (.067) with 10 strikeouts and one home run. Among pitchers Harper has faced at least 10 times, only Matt Harvey, John Lackey, and Matt Wisler have held him to a lower batting average.

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