(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
 Dodgers win vs. Mets to bring series back to LA
Nederlands
 QUEENS, New York City, New York (USA) -
The Los Angeles Dodgers won 3-1 on Tuesday-evening (October 13) vs. New York Mets behind the strong pitching of Clayton Kershaw to even their best-of-five National League Championship Series at 2-2.
And with that, the series returns to Los Angeles, where the decisive Game 5 will be played on Thursday.
Earlier today, the Chicago Cubs won 6-4 vs. the St. Louis Cardinals to win their NLDS and advance to the League Championship Series.
Recap Game 4, Cubs vs.Cardinals
On Wednesday, the American League Division Series continue with the fifth and deciding game to be played in both series.
The Kansas City Royals will play at home against the Houston Astros, while the Texas Rangers have traveled to Canada for the final game against the Toronto Blue Jays.
Tonight's starting pitchers were lefthander Steven Matz for the Mets and lefthander Clayton Kershaw for the Dodgers.
24-year old rookie Steven Matz made his Major League-debut this year on June 28.
The lefthander started six games in the season and was 4-0, striking out 34 batters in 35 2/3 inning, walking only ten.
By winning four of his first five Major League-starts, Matz became only the second pitcher is Mets-history to do so.
Matz pitched once this season against the Dodgers and he was the winning pitcher in that game on July 5, which was his second big league-start.
Tonight, he became the fourth consecutive Mets-starter to make his postseason-debut.
27-year old Clayton Kershaw was 16-7 this season, his eighth with the Dodgers.
Kershaw struckout 301 batters in 232 2/3 inning and walked only 42, while giving up 163 basehits.
His 301 strikeouts and innings pitched were most in the Major League this season.
He became the first pitcher to reach the 300-strikeout mark since 2002.
His 301 strikeouts are the fourth highest total in club-history.
The higher totals are 382, 317 and 306, which were all accomplished by legendary pitcher Sandy Koufax.
Last Friday, Kershaw was the starting and losing pitcher for the Dodgers in the first game against the Mets.
That was his fifth consecutive postseason-loss in a row dating back to 2013.
OK, first some history.
The New York Mets play their home games in Citi Field, which is located in Flushing, which is a neighborhood in Queens, which is a borough in New York City.
This year, 370 years ago, Flushing was established by Dutch settlers on the eastern bank of Flushing Creek under charter of the Dutch West India Company and was part of the New Netherland colony.
The settlement was named after the city of Vlissingen, in the southwestern Netherlands.
Flushing is an anglicization of the Dutch name Vlissingen that was then in use.
Flushing was part of New Amsterdam, which was the 17th-century Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island, which served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland territory.
In 1664, the English took control of New Amsterdam and renamed it the Province of New York.
New Amsterdam was renamed New York on September 8, 1664, in honor of the then Duke of York (later King James II of England), in whose name the English had captured it.
In those days, Peter Stuyvesant (circa 1612–1672) served as the last Dutch Director-General of the colony of New Netherlands from 1647 until it was ceded provisionally to the English in 1664 after which it was renamed New York.
He was a major figure in the early history of New York City and expanded the settlement of New Amsterdam.
Amongst the projects accomplished under his leadership were a protective wall on Wall Street, the canal that became Broad Street, and Broadway.
...Jimmy Rollins, who now plays for the Dodgers,...
...won the World Series in 2008 with the Philadelphia Phillies...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
For tonight's game, Dodgers-Manager Don Mattingly made some changes to his line-up.
He started again with rookie Corey Seager (who was 1-for-8 in the first two games) as short stop.
Veteran Jimmy Rollins started in Game 3.
Also, Yasiel Puig and Justin Ruggiano made their first start of the series in the outfield.
Rollins entered tonight's game defensively in the bottom of the eighth.
Both teams stranded one runner in the first two innings.
The Dodgers then opened the score with three runs with two outs in the top of the third at bat off of Steven Matz.
With one out, pitcher Clayton Kershaw singled, but he was forced out on a grounder by Kiké Hernandez.
Hereafter, Howie Kendrick singled to put runners on first and third base.
Adrian Gonzalez followed with a single to bring in the first run, then Justin Turner added a 2-run double to make it 3-0.
The Mets got one run back in the bottom of the fourth.
After Kershaw had retired nine batters in a row, Daniel Murphy homered with one out.
Murphy had also homered off of Kershaw in the first game.
In the fifth inning, both teams stranded runners.
Kiké Hernandez led off for the Dodgers with a single.
With two outs and Hernandez having advanced to second base, Justin Turner was walked intentionally.
Steven Matz then ended the inning with a strikeout.
In the bottom of the fifth, Kershaw began with two strikeouts.
He then gave up a single to Juan Lagares, but closed with his third strikeout in the at bat.
42-year old veteran Bartolo Colón took over the Mets-pitching in the top of the sixth.
The Dominican righthander retired the side, including two strikeouts.
In the bottom of the sixth, Kershaw retired the side in order again for the Dodgers, including two strikeouts to lift this total to eight.
In the top of the seventh, Colón was supported with a double play, then Kershaw gave up a lead-off single in the bottom of the seventh, but then retired the next three batters.
It was only the third hit that Kershaw had given up.
Chris Hatcher took over for Kershaw in the bottom of the eighth.
After retiring the first two batters, he walked Curtis Granderson.
And that brought in Dodger-closer Kenley Jansen to the mound to face David Wright.
The Dodgers let Granderson steal second base, then Jansen walked Wright after there had been a brief discussion regarding a foul-tip strikeout.
In the regular season, Jansen had walked only eight batters in 52 1/3 inning.
But with runners on first and second base, the inning ended when Daniel Murphy flied out.
In the bottom of the ninth, Jansen retired the side, including striking out the first two batters, to earn his second save.
And with that Clayton Kershaw ended a personal 5-game losing streak.
And with that, the series returns to Los Angeles for Game 5.
(October 13)
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