Los Angeles Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw awarded National League player of the week – MLB News
The Los Angeles Dodgers’ ace Clayton Kershaw has been named as National League’s player of the week after he made two-straight complete victories in the past seven days and lead the Major League with 128 strike-outs. He blanked the Detroit Tigers on June
20 while held the state rivals Los Angeles Angels to just two runs on Sunday, June 26.
Kershaw maintained his record to 2-0 with an exceptional 1.00 ERA with only two earned runs in 18 innings. After becoming the first pitcher in the Dodgers’ line-up to win the honour since Rafael Furcal won it for the week of the June 28 to July 4, last year,
Kershaw shared his excitement with the reporters and said,
“I think if you pitch deep into games, whether you’re giving up runs or not, you’re giving your team a chance to win, you’re giving your bullpen a breather. Stay in there as long as you can, give your team a chance.”
Kershaw won his sixth consecutive decision yesterday to extend his career-long winning streak to 6-0 with a 2.64 ERA in 78 innings, since May 2. In that span, he has limited the opposing hitters to a 1.99 batting average with 87 strike-outs and just 17 walks.
Now he has an 8-3 record with 2.93 ERA after 17 starts.
Despite winning this week, Kershaw still has an eye to get pass the Philadelphia Phillies’ outstanding starter Roy Halladay, who leads the chart with his five-complete games in this season.
Kershaw commented about Halladay and said, “I think Halladay, for me, personally, he’s the guy. There are a lot of guys having really good years, but day in, day out, what he brings to that team… That’s definitely where I’d like to get to.”
The 23-year-old hurler tied a season-high 11 strike-outs in both starts last week and now leads the Majors with 128 Ks followed by 124 of Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers and 123 of the Phillies’ Halladay. With this record, Kershaw became the first
Dodgers’ pitcher to fan 10 or more in consecutive starts since Chan Ho Park on June 29 in 2000. The last Dodger to lead the Majors in Ks was Fernando Valenzuela with 180 Ks in the strike-shortened 1981 season.
The left-hander is just the third Dodgers’ pitcher since 2000 to throw complete games in consecutive starts and is the first since Jeff Weaver won his 9 innings long game against the Colorado Rockies on September 12 and lost his eight innings game against
the San Francisco Giants on September 17, 2005. Kevin Brown fired three back-to-back complete outing from June 5 to June 15 in 2000.
Tags: