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The Los Angeles Dodgers’ 1-2 punch at the top of their batting order was exactly that in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series against the New York Mets.
Shohei Ohtani delivered a left uppercut to lead off the game, hitting a home run to put the Dodgers on top. In the fourth inning, Mookie Betts nailed a jab with a two-run double. Then in the sixth, he brought a roundhouse right with a two-run homer that gave the Dodgers a five-run lead and effectively put the game away. Both times, Ohtani walked in front of him.
For the game, the Dodgers’ first two batters hit a combined 5-for-9 with two home runs and five RBI as the Dodgers took a 3-1 series lead. That level of production from the top two spots in the lineup compelled The Athletic’s Jayson Stark to ask Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw if he’d ever faced a batting order with that kind of double-barreled firepower from the start.
The one that came to mind was the the Houston Astros’ No. 1 and 2 hitters, Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman. But even with that compliment, Kershaw showed that he still holds a grudge against that 2017 team because they were revealed to have gained a significant advantage by stealing signs from the center-field camera and relaying signals to the Astros batters that told them what pitch was coming.
“I’m trying to think of teams that I pitched against,” Kershaw said. “Like the best teams. I mean, leadoff-wise, [Jose] Altuve and [Alex] Bregman were good [in Houston]. But they cheated, so that’s not really the same.”
Houston defeated the Dodgers in a seven-game World Series in 2017. Yet Kershaw’s memory isn’t crystal-clear on the matter. For one thing, Altuve and Bregman weren’t the top two hitters in the Astros’ lineup that season. George Springer (who won World Series MVP) batted leadoff, followed by Bregman, then Altuve.
Neither Bregman nor Altuve hit particularly well over the seven games, either. Altuve batted .194 with a .670 OPS, though he compiled two doubles, two home runs and six RBI. Bregman hit .233 with a .739 OPS, two homers and five RBI.
But those numbers clearly don’t matter to Kershaw. He remembers that the Astros broke the rules and arguably took a World Series away from the Dodgers because of it. (Kershaw was pummeled in Game 5, giving up six runs, four hits and three walks in 4 2/3 innings.)
Even if Kershaw and his teammates take that just a bit more personally, it’s plausible — perhaps even likely — that other players who faced the Astros in 2017 feel the same way. And they probably won’t ever let go of that grudge, just like many fans who view the Astros as baseball’s super villains.
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