Kershaw’s troubles on 0-2 counts extremely rare

For more images from Monday, visit LA Photog Blog.

By Jon Weisman

Last year, Clayton Kershaw got ahead 0-2 on 211 hitters and allowed only 27 to reach base, including three doubles, a triple and two homers (.116 batting average, .128 on-base percentage, .169 slugging percentage).

That’s a .297 OPS, or nearly 30 percent below the 2014 National League average OPS of .421 on 0-2 counts.

One of the flukes from Kershaw’s Opening Day — and there’s little reason to think it was anything more than a Ripley’s — was that three of the 10 batters he had 0-2 reached base, on the Wil Myers leadoff hit-by pitch and doubles by Clint Barmes and Matt Kemp. The first and the third of those contributed to all three runs the Padres scored.

“I just didn’t put a lot of guys away,” Kershaw told reporters after the game. “I got ahead on a few guys and wasn’t able to finish it off.”

Maybe the most interesting aspect of Kershaw’s day was that his most challenging inning was a scoreless one. San Diego hitters fouled off 18 Kershaw pitches in the game — but 10 of those came in the fourth inning, including six with two strikes. Kershaw threw 24 pitches that inning before retiring the side, then gave up what were the go-ahead runs in the fifth.

Dodger manager Don Mattingly credited the Padres’ tenacity.

“Guys are fighting,” Mattingly said. “They’re not gonna just come in here and give up. These are Major League players. There’s a lot of talent. To be honest with you, when you put a team that ends up in last and a team that ends up in first side by side, a lot of times it’s gonna be a lot of close games in there. It’s just not that easy.”

Had Juan Uribe been able to throw out Derek Norris with two out in the fifth inning, Kemp’s two-run double wouldn’t have happened. Mattingly said that Uribe and the Dodgers knew Norris could run, but that Uribe didn’t have a good grip on the ball when he was readying to throw.

“He kind of double-pumped it, double-tapped it … and it takes that split-second longer,” Mattingly said.

Not that Kershaw was holding Uribe responsible.

“They gave me the lead, and I wasn’t able to hold it,” Kershaw said. “A little bit disappointed with that, but you know what, we got some clutch hits.”

And in any case, Kershaw was probably being too hard on himself. Six of the other seven hitters that he had 0-2 in the count struck out.