Clayton Kershaw Threw His Third Complete Game Shutout This Month
A few weeks ago, I wrote about how, with all due respect to Jake Arrieta, Clayton Kershaw is still the best pitcher in the National League.
Cubs fans freaked out, and thought that I was trying to undermine what Arrieta has been doing over his run of dominance. That’s not the case at all. The fact of the matter is that Kershaw has been the best pitcher in the National League for the last five years coming into this season, and he’s the best pitcher in the National League once again in 2016. On Monday night, Kershaw threw a complete game shutout against the Cincinnati Reds with 7 strikeouts. Strikeouts-wise, I guess you could say he had an off-night. It was Kershaw’s first outing since April 15 where he didn’t have double digit strikeouts. Monday night’s complete game shutout ended a streak of six straight starts with at least 10 strikeouts.
Since 1990, the most complete game shutouts in a season is six. Randy Johnson did it in 1998, and Cliff Lee did it in 2011. Kershaw already has three complete game shutouts this season, and they’ve all come in the month of May. In fact, Kershaw has more complete game shutouts this month (3) than he has walks (2).
Among the National League leaders, Kershaw is now second in ERA (1.48), and he’s first in innings (79), strikeouts (95), WAR (3.3), WHIP (0.658), FIP (1.38), walks per nine innings (0.6), quality starts (9), strikeouts to walks ratio (19.00), average game score (75.7), and opponents’ OPS (.429), and he has the fewest pitches per innings pitched (13.2).