Kershaw keeps teammates in awe with 14th career shutout
Think facing Clayton Kershaw is tough? Imagine being one of his teammates.
Every five days, like clockwork, you're forced to come up with new ways of fawning over the venerable left-hander, a three-time Cy Young award winner who lowered his 2016 ERA to 1.74 on Thursday with his 14th career shutout, a 13-strikeout spanking of the New York Mets.
Kenley Jansen, the Los Angeles Dodgers' longtime closer, found himself in this awkward position after Kershaw's latest effort, his fifth straight start with double-digit strikeouts.
"He's the best by far," Jansen told MLB.com's Ken Gurnick after Kershaw's three-hitter propelled Los Angeles to a 5-0 win.
"Watching him doing that, man, I don't know what to think. I wasn't there when Sandy Koufax was there, but to see him break all these records … he's the best, man, the best on the planet."
Jansen isn't being hyperbolic - there's plenty of evidence to support the statement that Kershaw is the best pitcher on earth - and, with all due respect to Koufax, Kershaw has him beat, too. Of course, Koufax enjoyed postseason successes that have thus far eluded Kershaw, but in terms of regular-season dominance, there isn't a single meaningful metric in which Kershaw doesn't boast an edge over the man nominally blessed with the Left Arm of God.
| Player | ERA (ERA-) | WHIP | K% | HR/9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kershaw | 2.40 (63) | 1.02 | 27.6% | 0.54 |
| Koufax | 2.76 (75) | 1.11 | 25.2% | 0.79 |
Denied a third consecutive Cy Young award last season, Kershaw appears determined to start the streak back up again in 2016. With more than one-fifth of the season in the books, Kershaw sits atop the NL in virtually every statistical category, and though Jake Arrieta, last year's winner, owns the better ERA so far, his peripherals aren't in the same league as Kershaw.
| Name | RA-9 WAR | ERA | FIP | WHIP | K-BB% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clayton Kershaw | 2.8 | 1.74 | 1.48 | 0.73 | 32.4% |
| Jake Arrieta | 2.6 | 1.13 | 2.80 | 0.88 | 15.6% |
| Jon Lester | 2 | 1.96 | 3.40 | 1.02 | 18% |
| Stephen Strasburg | 1.6 | 2.76 | 2.26 | 1.04 | 24.1% |
| Kenta Maeda | 1.6 | 2.3 | 3.82 | 1.02 | 15.2% |
Though dealing with the media is one of his primary responsibilities as the Dodgers manager, Dave Roberts felt downright ill equipped, vocabulary-wise, to break down Kershaw's importance to the club following Thursday's masterpiece.
"He's a beast," Roberts said. "He's just completely dominant and I don't think there's enough adjectives to describe what he does to our ballclub."