Los Angeles Dodgers’ Don Mattingly, Matt Kemp proud of Clayton Kershaw – MLB News
A pitcher, who stunned the baseball World with his unsurpassed performance this past season and not only got his career best numbers in almost every category, but also left behind any rival at big league level, Clayton Kershaw has won the National League
2011 CY Young Award by a high margin.
His team-mates and manager are as happy as Clayton himself is.
Los Angeles Dodgers’ manager Don Mattingly was jubilant and a statement released by the club, stated.
"Clayton represents everything good about this game and this award. He is a tremendous worker, a student of baseball and a great teammate. He's always trying to get better and deserves all the accolades that come his way."
Kershaw, who put on career best 21 wins, 2.28 ERA, 248 strike-outs, 33 games started and just over 233 innings pitched, got full support from the veteran batters, James Loney and Matt Kemp.
Kemp stated that it has always been a great sense of confidence when Clayton was on the mound throughout the season.
Kemp said, "It's like a day off for me in the outfield -- all I have to worry about is hitting and scoring him some runs. When he is locked in and hitting his spots, he is tough to hit. ... I knew he was destined the whole year to win the CY Young and it
showed."
Clayton has been in Major League Baseball since 2008, when he made his debut on May 25, against the St. Louis Cardinals, which was regarded, by one of the baseball experts, as the best ever debut in the Dodgers’ history since 1995. Kershaw also made his
name into the All-Star team for the first time in his career and helped the National League to win the competition.
After this break, he became extremely dangerous, putting up 12-1 with a 1.31 ERA and his ration of strikeout-to-walk was better than 5-to-1. He won all of his last eight decisions and won eight of his last nine starts. He allowed only a single run in seven
of these starts and did not lose a game after August 7. This made him a better pitcher than the Philadelphia Phillies’ Roy Halladay, who was runner up of the Award.
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