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Win: Yovani Gallardo (8-6)
Loss: Clayton Kershaw (14-3)
Save: Francisco Rodriguez (38)
HR: Ryan Braun (15), Carlos Gomez (19), Matt Kemp (15)
Clayton Kershaw is good. Really good. Probably he's going to win the NL MVP this year good. But on Saturday night, the Brewers figured out the one way to beat him. He's probably not going to give up many baserunners at all, so why not do the whole home run thing, where you need nobody on base to score a run?
Kershaw pitched a complete game, striking out 11 batters and allowing just five hits. He took the loss though. In the top of the fourth inning, Carlos Gomez led off with a double. Two batters later, Ryan Braun hit his first home run since July 24 to give the Brewers a 2-0 lead. The Dodgers got one back in the bottom of that inning, but Carlos Gomez hit a solo shot in the sixth to make it 3-1.
That's about as good as an offense can hope to do against Kershaw, it seems. Fortunately, Yovani Gallardo was up to the task.
Gallardo may only have struck out three, but scattered just six hits and a walk over eight innings. Having thrown just 96 pitches, Gallardo probably could have gone the full nine, but Ron Roenicke opted instead to send closer Francisco Rodriguez out for the final inning.
Rodriguez rewarded that decision with a lead-off homer for Matt Kemp to cut the lead to just one. Rodriguez then struck out Carl Crawford and Jacob Turner. An Andre Ethier grounder to short ended the game with Milwaukee on top. For the second time in about a week, the Brewers have won the first two games in a series against the Dodgers.
The Brewers and Dodgers will go one more round tomorrow, with first pitch scheduled for 3:10 CT.
