Diamondbacks become latest victims of Clayton Kershaw disrespect curse

Last year, the Padres put up a now-infamous meme of a sad Clayton Kershaw on their center field Jumbotron after beating the Dodgers 5-2 in Game 1 of a three game series, which was promptly met with outrage by Dodgers fans and prompted apologies from Padres players in the following weeks. They might've been trying to reverse a self-inflicted curse; after the incident, they lost five straight series (including the initial one against the Dodgers) and didn't beat the Dodgers again until August 5, in Game 2 of a series they also lost.

There might be something about messing with Kershaw, who's basically a living legend and will be headed straight to Cooperstown as soon as he's eligible, that the baseball gods frown upon. The Diamondbacks, who beat the living crud out of him in Game 1 of the NLDS last year, might be the newest ones to fall out of favor with them.

On March 29, a fan shared a picture of a piece of merchandise from the Dbacks team store: a print of Gabriel Moreno about to flip his bat after hitting a home run off of Kershaw during that game, and Kershaw looking bereft on the mound. Since the calendar turned over to April, Arizona has been on an embarrassing cold streak; they're 1-7 as of Tuesday morning.

The Diamondbacks are the latest victim of the self-inflicted Dodgers-Clayton Kershaw curse

After the way the postseason shook out last year, the Diamondbacks seemed to be setting themselves up as newer, fiercer divisional rivals for the Dodgers than the Padres or Giants, who haven't properly threatened LA in a few years. The D-Backs even set themselves up well this offseason, with new offensive threats in Eugenio Suárez and Joc Pederson and rotation additions Eduardo Rodriguez and Jordan Montgomery joining NL Rookie of the Year Corbin Carroll and his pennant-winning teammates from last year.

Suárez and Pederson have been hitting well in their first games with the D-Backs, but Rodriguez and Montgomery have yet to make starts, and the rest of Arizona's pitching staff is already ranked 18th in team ERA.

Of course, this is the same Arizona team that came into the postseason with only 84 regular season wins last year. However, if that Curse of Kersh is indeed real, we're rooting for it to take hold of the Diamondbacks.