Astros fall flat as Dodgers romp in series opener

Clayton Kershaw surrendered the baseball before the bullpen door swung open. Joe Kelly sauntered onto the field. Screams came from the few souls who stayed for the end of this embarrassment. Kershaw kept his head down. He shuffled from the field on which he once imploded. A blue-clad crowd cheered him as he left. Kershaw doffed his cap.

Atonement arrived Tuesday night. The Astros are a skeleton of their 2017 selves. Trash cans and center-field cameras are gone. Competent relievers, too. Reckoning for their four-year-old wrongdoing may last forever. The Dodgers delivered another dose Tuesday during a 9-2 drubbing. 

The Astros humiliated themselves against baseball’s best team. Putting these two clubs in the same class seems outlandish. The Dodgers destroyed them without their two best players — Corey Seager and Cody Bellinger. 

Houston managed four hits and tied its season-high with nine walks. Kershaw controlled them in every imaginable facet in his return to Houston. Los Angeles’ lineup demonstrated its depth. By the seventh inning, it did not need to even swing. Astros relievers issued three bases-loaded walks in the seventh, another indignity on a heinous night in Houston. 

Kershaw appeared at Minute Maid Park for the first time since the 2017 World Series. He gave up six earned runs and could not hold seven runs of support during Game 5, an exhilarating Astros win now shrouded in shame.

The evening added another chapter to Kershaw’s poor postseason legacy. Houston needed an illegal sign-stealing scheme to write it. The lineup did not swing and miss against one of Kershaw’s breaking balls that October night. 

Winning the World Series last season seemed to soothe some anger the Dodgers harbored toward Houston. Perception does not always match reality. Before the game, Austin Barnes said he doesn’t know “if I’ll ever fully get over it.” Manager Dave Roberts said “the world really doesn’t appreciate cheating.”

The Dodgers got a glimpse into the one world that’s forgiven. Minute Maid Park opened to full capacity, welcoming an announced crowd of 34,443. Astros fans showered their team with praise and turned the Dodgers into a villain. Sections of Dodger blue tried to boo the Astros in their own ballpark. Houston’s orange-clad crowd did an admirable job to drown it out. 

Angst felt apparent from both sides, culminating in a cacophony of jeers directed at no one in particular. Playoff atmospheres don’t often arrive in May. The Astros had one and took no advantage. 

Kershaw controlled them from the start. He needed 76 pitches to finish seven innings. If not for the lopsided score and long offensive half-innings, the future Hall of Famer could have spun a complete game. He settled instead for 7 ⅔ innings of one-run ball. 

Kershaw induces ground balls 46.4 percent of the time. Twenty-nine qualified starters get them more frequently. Kershaw thrives on two pitches: a menacing four-seam fastball and a slider that dives down in the strike zone. 

The Astros swung over them and rolled over at will. Eleven of Kershaw’s 22 outs arrived on the ground. Shortstop Gavin Lux totalled six of them, including the 6-4-3 double play that ended Kershaw’s night. 

Houston saw 11 or fewer pitches in five of the seven innings Kershaw completed. Alex Bregman’s 350-foot home run into the Crawford Boxes in the seventh was Kershaw’s lone blemish. He ended Jose Altuve’s 17-game hitting streak. He struck out Yordan Alvarez three times. The 21 balls in play Kershaw allowed had just an 88.1 mph exit velocity — soft contact for a lineup with no prayer to touch him.

Time has taken away some of Kershaw’s dominance. He opposed a man who can intimately relate. Neither Kershaw nor Zack Greinke’s fastball approaches the mid-90s of their youth. They each tossed three perfect innings Tuesday without touching 93 mph. Kershaw’s battled injury. Greinke’s been traded three different times. Days as aces are long gone, but brilliance can still appear. 

For three innings, the duo delighted the crowd with a duel. Each retired the first nine men they saw. Greinke needed 29 pitches to procure his first nine outs. Mookie Betts chased a two-strike slider to start the game with a strikeout. Max Muncy and Gavin Lux each waved over changeups, odd for an offense known for its control. 

The Dodgers deploy one of the sport’s most disciplined lineups. They chase outside the strike zone just 26.1 percent of the time. Only the San Diego Padres have a lower rate. Greinke survives on pinpoint command and opponents expanding their strike zone. Losing either trait is begging for disaster. 

Roberts has just three lefthanded hitters in his order. Righthanders are hammering Greinke for a .475 slugging percentage and .797 OPS. Five days ago in Oakland, Greinke tried to throw his four-seam fastball harder for better results. He tossed eight innings of one-run ball while averaging 90 mph.

Tuesday represented a return to reality. Greinke averaged 88.9 mph. His command vacillated from adequate to awful. Walks preceded two of the three hits he surrendered. Betts worked a four-pitch free pass to start the fourth. Greinke fell behind Turner 2-1 before evening the count with a fastball he fouled away. The putaway curveball Greinke gave him hung at the top of the strike zone. Turner deposited it into the Astros’ bullpen for a two-run lead. It felt far worse.

Greinke survived into the sixth with just 60 pitches. He struck out Austin Barnes and got a flyout from Betts to continue his rhythm before disaster arrived. Muncy and Will Smith worked two-out walks. Chris Taylor blooped a single over Altuve’s outstretched glove to score them both.

Kershaw needed little else. With a four-run advantage, he attacked the strike zone and avoided hard contact. Five runners reached against him all game. Kershaw erased the fifth with a groudball double play, bringing Roberts from the dugout.  A throng of Dodgers fans showered Kershaw with praise above the third-base dugout. No one interrupted them. 

Kelly came in from the bullpen. He intentionally hit Bregman last season as payback for the 2017 malfeasance. The face he made as he left the field is now legendary in Los Angeles. Kelly needed no shenanigans on Tuesday. Altuve dribbled his fourth pitch harmlessly to third base, bringing this disaster another out closer to conclusion.