Astros could not solve the Game 1 riddle that were Clayton Kershaw’s pitches
Clayton Kershaw steps with his right foot, turns his body, and pivots his left foot. He lifts his right leg and his connected arms at the same time, lowers them all, and then pauses for a split second before unleashing each pitch.
That delay within his delivery Kershaw has executed since high school gave the Houston Astros trouble in Tuesday’s World Series opener at Dodger Stadium. They knew it was coming, but that advance knowledge proved insufficient.
“You can look at all the video you want,” said third baseman Alex Bregman, whose solo shot supplied the Astros’ lone run in their 3-1 loss. “Until you get in the box with somebody, you don’t really know what their stuff looks like out of their hand.
“I think his little timing mechanism played a bit of a factor for some of us that never saw him before. You had to sync up everything with that.”
Bregman, center fielder George Springer and first baseman Yuli Gurriel had never faced Kershaw. Brian McCann had faced him only in the postseason, oddly enough. And the Astros’ other four starters had taken 23 combined plate appearances against the Dodgers ace.
Springer struck out three times in three chances. His teammates struck out eight more times against the left-hander. In total, the 11 were the most any starting pitcher had against the Astros in 2017. Springer said their failings were directly connected to their lack of experience standing 60 feet from Kershaw.
“It’s hard when you haven’t seen somebody,” Springer said. “Video doesn’t do it any justice. Until you get in the box and you see what the ball does, the depth, the angle of it, the video can only take you so far.”
And there was another factor, both Astros said. Plate umpire Phil Cuzzi provided Kershaw the benefit of the doubt on borderline pitches, aiding his efforts.
“If you’ve got a veteran guy who’s getting the marginal pitches, you know you’re in for a tough night, a battle,” Bregman said. “He took complete advantage of getting those marginal pitches. He pitched where he needed to pitch. He pitched down in the zone.”
The Astros appeared to get caught in a high-stakes game of waiting. They opted against swinging at 14 of Kershaw’s first 25 pitches. Instead of forcing him to overexert himself in the stifling heat, their patience permitted Kershaw to finish two quick innings because he threw strikes.
“He landed his breaking ball a little bit better than we’ve seen in the past, but he’s tough,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “He showed it tonight by being in attack mode, being in the strike zone early and got us pretty defensive from the get-go.”
The results were a relic of an earlier Astros era. Four years ago, they struck out 10% more often than anyone else in MLB. But, this season, they struck out in only 17.3% of their plate appearances, the major leagues’ lowest rate. They struck out nearly a quarter less often than the Dodgers.
Springer said the strikeouts were not an indication of increased passivity. He said the results proved only that Kershaw was good.
“I think that’s just a product of him throwing the ball well,” Springer said. “When his slider can move like that, he’s hard to hit. He made it look like a strike and it was a ball, and then it looked like a ball and it was a strike. He just did a great job of commanding the plate tonight.”
Bregman believed the Astros found their timing toward the conclusion of Kershaw’s seven innings. The final five hitters to face him all put the ball in play. Though only one meant a hit, the contact gave Bregman confidence.
“We’ll be ready next time we face him,” Bregman said.
Follow Pedro Moura on Twitter @pedromoura
Get our high school sports newsletter
Prep Rally is devoted to the SoCal high school sports experience, bringing you scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
