Kershaw rebounded after a tough outing in the first game to deliver a remarkable performance in the fifth game.(Photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea, USA TODAY Sports)

LOS ANGELES – It was not so much the fifth game of the National League series, it was a duel between referendums, Clayton Kershaw against his skeptics and demons and the Milwaukee Brewers fighting more than a century of orthodoxy baseball.

Throughout this Wednesday afternoon of 82 degrees at the Dodger Stadium, a perfect postcard, while the sun was giving way to the shadows, Kershaw was constantly strolling outside the excavated niche. at home, climbing the hill and causing misfires and failures among the Brewers who dominated it four days earlier.

He was, of course, trying to prepare the Dodgers for a second consecutive World Series appearance, but it also looked like a defense of his Hall of Fame and profession career – that the assets are important, that the 39, we can expect that they are up to the task. even at a time when data and decision-makers threaten to permanently marginalize individual size on the mound.

And in what Kershaw dazzled, mixing his fields to perfection, holding the Brewers out of balance and refusing to yield as the Dodgers' helpless offensive would not take over.

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He followed the worst performance of his playoff career with one of his biggest successes, allowing only three hits in seven innings. The Dodgers won a 5-2 win over 54,502 spectators, who wondered if this would be their last home game of the season.

That may still be the case, but the Brewers' task is now much more important: win two home games against a Dodger team that beat their flag at Games 1-2 at Miller Park.

The Dodgers? It's a return win in the World Series after Kershaw limited the Brewers to three hits and a seven-run score.

Kershaw's post-season legacy, as it is, is complicated, as many of his greatest misses have been defeated: fleeting circumstance, over-zealous coach, or mere reality: two or three rounds after -season. Entering Thursday's race, her playoff scoring – 8-8, 4.26 ERA – reflected both salvific and captivating outings.

This NLCS was however rather black and white: Kershaw was terrible in the first game, excellent in the fifth.

Where he earned just five swings and missed the Brewers drummers in the first game, he had 18 on Wednesday, especially when he needed it the most.

Behind the threat of the LNP, Christian Yelich, 1-0 in the third, one in the second and third and third alleged, Christian Yelich: four courts and Yelich swayed.

After a partially intentional march at Ryan Braun, the bases were beaten, Kershaw faced off against Jesus Aguilar, a 35-run racer, and an eight-shot fight went off, which ended up very badly for Kershaw in the first match.

This time, he found an entrance field.

Aguilar fouled five courts before Kershaw saw a fastball in the dust that Aguil fanned to end the threat.

He was tied 1-1 in the sixth when Kershaw found the danger, ahead of 3-1 Braun, who was 10 years old for 31 years in the playoffs.

Kershaw did not give in, running a pair of sliders – the one Braun had swung, the other that he was returning to Kershaw. After another punch from Aguilar – the latter on a captivating curve at 74 km / h – the Dodgers were gaining time.

They pushed the ball late in the game on Max Muncy's RBI single, which chased out starter Brandon Woodruff from the match.

Expect. Brandon Woodruff is not a star.

The real starter, Wade Miley, battled only one hitter – Cody Bellinger – before he was trained in what Brewers coach Craig Counsell would describe as tricky. In the era of hyper-specialization, Counsell wanted to "capture" as many games as possible by encouraging the Dodgers to embark on right-handed training, then immediately switching to Woodruff for right-handers.

Basically, it worked. Woodruff pulled out eight and shut out the Dodgers in the sixth goal, a crucial stretch just hours after the teams had played a 13-run epic in Tuesday night's fourth game.

But the Dodgers fired him in singles and fifth and sixth, then scored three more in the seventh, two in the RBI singles that scored the goal for Kershaw – who made a goal.

The Dodgers' pen was also taxed – Kenley Jansen, who was closer, pitched two innings Tuesday – but Kershaw's job eased their burden.

In the end, Kershaw at seven was better than a Brewer crew of five men over that same period. A playoff win will certainly not end debates on the use of pitchers or the legacy of a man.

For the moment, it was good enough to push the Dodgers to the brink of another World Series

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