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A16 sports
Thursday 15 sepTember 2022
Kershaw, Dodgers win another NL West title, blank D-backs

PHOENIX (AP) — Last year, said. Kershaw (8-3) was sharp
the Los Angeles Dodgers "It's something we should throughout, allowing just
went all the way to the enjoy and be proud of, and two singles and one walk
last day of the regular sea- get back to work (Wednes- while striking out five. He
son, won a whopping 106 day), but it's quite the ac- threw just 82 pitches, 55 for
games, and still lost the NL complishment," he said. strikes. He lowered his sea-
West title to the San Fran- Freddie Freeman, Max son ERA to 2.44.
cisco Giants. Muncy and Joey Gallo Kershaw missed three
This time, Clayton Kershaw homered as the Dodgers weeks with a back is-
and the Dodgers left no boosted the best record in sue that has plagued him
doubt. the majors to 98-43. They through the second half
Kershaw pitched seven lead second-place San Di- of his decorated career.
dominant innings and the ego by a whopping 20 1/2 Since then, he has started
Dodgers won the NL West games. three times, allowing just
for the ninth time in 10 sea- Roberts' team will have three runs in 18 innings with
sons, blanking the Arizona Los Angeles Dodgers celebrate in the locker room after a 4-0 plenty of time to get set for 19 strikeouts.
win in a baseball game against the Arizona Diamondbacks in
Diamondbacks 4-0 Tues- Phoenix, Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2022. The Dodgers clinched the Na- its 10th straight year in the "That three-week kind of hi-
day night. tional League West. postseason. The Dodgers' atus gave him a chance to
The Dodgers walked from Associated Press first playoff game is almost reset, and just to know that
the dugout when it was a month away, on Oct. 11. even tonight, there was
over to congratulate each Then, it was back to the the division title, was on A crowd of 21,143, most- some more in there. He'll
other, much like they did clubhouse at Chase Field their minds. ly clad in Dodger blue, make three or four more
after most of their wins in for a spirited, spraying cel- "We weren't defending Na- watched the clincher. It's starts and be ready for the
a runaway season, and ebration. Clearly, the near- tional League West cham- the Dodgers' 20th NL West postseason," Roberts said.
posed for a team photo on miss last year, beaten by pions. That was first on our crown since the majors split Caleb Ferguson and Craig
the field. the Giants by a game for list," manager Dave Roberts into divisions in 1969. Kimbrel finished the com-
bined three-hit shutout.
Gallo's home run, his 17th,
cleared the center-field
wall and gave the Dodgers
a 2-0 lead in the second.
The homer was measured
at 438 feet. Muncy led off
the inning with a single off
Merrill Kelly — literally— as it
bounced off the pitcher to
the vacated left side of the
infield.
Freeman led off the third in-
ning with his 20th homer, a
442-foot drive to right-cen-
ter into the swimming pool
area.
Last year, the Dodgers beat
the Giants in the NL Division
Series, but lost to Freeman
and the eventual cham-
pion Atlanta Braves in the
NLCS.
Freeman saw how much
more difficult it was for his
current teammates to win
with very little rest last Oc-
tober. He's played in every
game this year and refused
to consider clinching too
early as a problem.
"There is no downside,"
Freeman said. "You come
to the yard and expect to
win every single day. If you
don't have that expecta-
tion, I don't know what
you're doing as a profes-
sional athlete."
Mookie Betts agreed.
"You just keep playing," the
All-Star right fielder said. "It's
not like we're going to start
throwing away at-bats or
pitches. We just continue to
play the same game."q