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LOS ANGELES – Most of the two afternoons at Dodger Stadium, the conversation was centered on the man who was not get the ball in the first game of the Division Division series of the National League. Clayton Kershaw, a rising Hall of Fame member, was the Los Angeles Dodgers' player every time they played until October in the last nine years.
Clayton Kershaw says that he accepts the reasons given to him not to start the first game in the National League division series.
The offensive explodes, the rotation is heard and L.A. finally looks like the power we've been waiting for since the start of the season – but that will not matter if the Dodgers do not get closer in October.
From the Wild Cards round to the World Series, we'll be covering the 2018 playoffs.
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But not this time.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts chose Hyun-Jin Ryu, a circumstance that pushed Kershaw back to the second game of the NHL against the Atlanta Braves. Roberts streamlined his decision by describing its logistical components, noting that this would give Ryu and Kershaw a five-day break while preserving Kershaw's ability to play a fifth deciding game.
Many others saw it as a sign that Kershaw was no longer the best of the Dodgers, at least not as much as he had been.
But there was another reason, which usually went unnoticed: Ryu is really very good.
Thursday night, after a 6-0 victory over the young Braves, Ryu proved it on a national stage by doing seven laps while allowing only four ground losses and hardly sweat. The 31-year-old southpaw finished the regular season with a 1.97 ERA and has been at his best lately, allowing just one point in his last 26 innings.
"It's unfortunate that he was injured in Arizona," said Justin Turner, Dodgers third baseman, about Ryu. "Maybe you could talk about him in the Cy Young race."
The wound evoked by Turner – a torn groin injury that prevented Ryu from staying longer than three months – was only the latest in a series of debilitating setbacks, most of which prevented Ryu to take such a scene. He underwent a shoulder surgery in May 2015, returned in July 2016, made a bad start, then returned to the shelf, eventually succumbing to an elbow operation.
Ryu was finally able to stay healthy in 2017, but he made a bad start in the regular season finale, was beaten by Alex Wood for fourth and last place in the playoff round and could only watch as the Dodgers were playing until Match 7 of the World Series.
Ryu called Thursday, his first playoff game in four years, "the fulfillment of all the hard work I've done."
He has now pitched seven scoreless innings in the playoffs twice, a feat that even Kershaw could not have matched. The only other Dodgers to do this are Sandy Koufax, Jerry Reuss and Orel Hershiser.
"It's always nice to be compared to the Dodger legend," Ryu said through an interpreter. "I do not necessarily prepare the game to beat that kind of record, but I always do my best."
Backed by a fast forward – thanks to a home lead led by Joc Pederson and Max Muncy – Ryu 's third – inning round scored one over the minimum of the first four runs and had little trouble later.
He made two consecutive singles in fifth in the fifth inning, but withdrew the next hitter, the hitter nipper Kurt Suzuki, on the first pitch. He saw the first batter hit on Manny Machado's mistake at Goal 6, but he did not let him out of contention. He came out seventh on 86 shots and easily managed to get two hits. And he even added a single RBI, his fourth success in seven rounds.
"He had some tough years," Pederson said. "Coming here and doing what he's done is special."
Ryu was pretty solid when he came back in 2017, contributing to an average of 3.77 points in 126 innings. But a dead season helped him prepare better for this season. And when he came back from his groin injury in the middle of August, the Dodgers' manager, Dave Roberts, found him "in top shape".
"He picked up where he left off," Roberts said. "We were counting on him this year and he did everything we hoped for."
Kershaw has the prestige and Walker Buehler has earned the distinction as an "as-in-wait" of the Dodgers, but Ryu was just as good, if not better, one and the other, a sign of the dangerousness of this team. The Dodgers have won five straight victories and have outscored their opponents 39-9 during this stretch.
Roberts believes that they are at their best at the perfect time.
"We play really well in baseball," said Roberts. "All the month of September, I think we got a little closer – offensively, defensively, starting to throw, the pen – and that's when you want to play your best baseball.We have a lot of good We are in good health. And it's a very focused and determined group. "
The first 11 questions Kershaw answered on Thursday afternoon in the interview room were about not starting a playoff opener for the first time since 2009. He dismissed calling it " a punch in the belly "and gave no real indication that the decision bothered him, even if he finally did it.
"Hyun-Jin had a great season," Kershaw said at one point. "He launched very well for us."
At the end of the evening, Roberts was asked how he felt after the fact.
"I do not think I need to answer that question," he said. "I think we feel very good about it."
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