Don Mattingly on the St. Louis Cardinals’ success against Clayton Kershaw

After the St. Louis Cardinals clinched another NLCS appearance, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Don Mattingly spoke about the Cardinals’ success against Clayton Kershaw.

Q. What’s your theory on why the Cardinals have success against Clayton?
“I don’t know how much success that was,” Mattingly said when asked why the Cardinals have success against Kershaw. “He gave up one hit through six. I know he’s given up some runs. Wacha beats him 1‑0 last year.

“He’s pitching really good through major parts of that game. He has the one inning and then he’s pitching really good through major parts in LA. And then has one bad inning.

“They have a good club. They have guys that are professionals. The more times you get through the order, you get through Holliday three times, you’re getting into Jonny and Molina and those guys, the third time through the order, it always gets tougher and tougher, because you’ve got to change your mix. And they’ve seen you three times.

“So I don’t know if it’s necessarily that they have any kind of command over Clayton. I think he’s pitched really good against them, other than an inning here or an inning there.”

Kershaw has now lost all four of his career postseason starts against the Cardinals dating back to the 2013 NLCS. His four postseason losses are the most by one pitcher against the Cardinals.