Dodgers Cy Young Candidates

September 2, 2015; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw (22) reacts following his last strike out for the complete game 2-1 victory against the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

The Case For Kershaw

12-7, 2.18 ERA, 2.02 FIP, 172 ERA+, .897 WHIP, 6.5 H/9, 0.6 HR/9, 1.6 BB/9, 11.6 K/9

Last year, Kershaw became the first NL pitcher since 1968 to win the NL MVP award. He’s arguably having a better season this year than he did last year. After his May 21st start in San Francisco, Kershaw had a 4.32 ERA. A little more than three months later, and Kershaw’s ERA sits at 2.18. In 71 innings since the all-star game, Kershaw has given up eight runs, walked seven batters and struck out 91 batters.

Since college football kicks off tonight, I’ll pull my other pro-Kershaw argument from there. Kershaw had his “Heisman Moment” last night. In a chance to sweep their division rivals, Kershaw put together a game that rivals his 2014 no-hitter in terms of dominance. He threw a 132-pitch, 15-strikeout game against the Giants to put the Dodgers 6.5 games ahead of them in the west. He ran into trouble in the ninth, but his 130th pitch still hit 95 on the gun and his 132nd struck out Byrd to end the game. Manager Don Mattingly went out to check on him, and I don’t think anyone in the stadium thought Kershaw was coming out of that game. The Giants are a group of professional hitters. While they don’t have a lot of power, they’re very good at putting bat on ball. 35 times last night, a Giants’ hitter swung at a Kershaw pitch and missed like I do in the batting cages. That broke the old record (according to PitchFX) which was also held by Kershaw (and Carlos Carrasco) by five.

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