NYPost.com:
Clayton Kershaw pitched the big-money Dodgers to their third straight NL West title, throwing a one-hitter as Los Angeles beat the San Francisco Giants 8-0 on Tuesday night.I don't care that both Utley and Rollins have had bad regular seasons statistically and are clearly on the downside of their careers. The disgruntled Mets fan in me just remembers how they were both huge Met killers during their longtime days with the Phillies. And I imagine either one of them coming up in a huge spot during this series just feening to put their foot on the Mets neck again. So sure, we can be afraid of Greinke and Kershaw all we want, but to me Utley and Rollins are just as dangerous, if not moreso when it comes to the Mets winning this series.
Kershaw allowed just a third-inning single and struck out 13, and now he will get a chance to erase those sour postseason memories as the Dodgers (88-69) advance to face the NL East champion Mets in a best-of-five Division Series.
Kershaw (16-7) finally got the best of his 2015 nemesis in the fourth matchup of the year against World Series MVP Madison Bumgarner, striking out the side in order three times and retiring the final 19 batters as the Dodgers snapped a four-game losing streak.
“There’s a little bit, if you don’t win this one then you’ve got two more and you start getting a little nervous, you start panicking a little bit,” Kershaw said. “We’ve still got something to play for. We’re still trying to fight the Mets for home-field advantage. It’s kind of a sigh of relief. We weren’t playing that well.”
Don Mattingly’s Dodgers earned a third straight playoff berth for the first time in franchise history, and did so by snapping a seven-game losing streak at AT&T Park this year. It’s also their sixth postseason berth in 10 years.
