Once upon a time, I took joy in Clayton Kershaw struggling in the postseason. Why? I don’t know. Sometimes, I like to be different, and everyone hyped him up so much to see him scuffle in October was sort of unreal. That said, it got trendy quick, and my ‘Baseball’s Peyton Manning’ jokes grew stale. Before the World Series started, I wanted to see Kershaw go out there and have the career-defining outing putting him in the very upper echelon of pitchers. He began to write that story in Game 1 with a dominating seven inning performance as the Los Angeles Dodgers take Game 1 over the Houston Astros.

Kershaw made one mistake over seven innings, and that was a home run to Alex Bregman who apparently mashes any ace that’s a lefty. Other than that, the Dodgers ace dazzled with 11 strikeouts and only allowed three hits. He could have pitched into the eighth, and possibly the ninth if manager Dave Roberts wanted him to as Kershaw went out at 83 pitches. He’s the first pitcher since Randy Johnson in 2001 to have 10 or more strikeouts in a World Series start. This should be a funeral for the haters who think he cannot pitch in the postseason.

Even though it was not much, Los Angeles received the run support they needed to win the game thanks to the usual suspects of this postseason. Chris Taylor and Justin Turner both hit home runs in this game giving LA the three runs they needed to win this baseball game. I don’t think Game 1 really taught us anything about the series that we didn’t already know. Dodgers did what they’ve done for the entire month of October, and they look like a clear-cut favorite.

If this is Kershaw’s only start in the World Series (You never know), he did the damn thing and dominated one of the best teams in baseball. That’s a good way to go out on your 2017 season.

Charlie.