Los Angeles, CA – Carl Crawford and A.J. Ellis each homered and drove in three runs, while Clayton Kershaw capped his stellar 2013 season with another solid start, as the Los Angeles Dodgers crushed the Colorado Rockies, 11-0, on Friday at Dodger Stadium.
Kershaw (16-9) kept his bid for a second NL Cy Young award going, striking out eight without walking a batter over six scoreless innings of four-hit ball.
The 25-year-old left-hander sliced his earned run average to 1.83 on the year, becoming the first pitcher to top the big leagues in ERA in three consecutive seasons since Greg Maddux accomplished the feat from 1993-95.
"If we had gotten this guy some runs, he would have won 25, 26 games this season," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. "He just attacks. It's like the scoreboard isn't even there. He goes after people."
Juan Uribe finished 3-for-4 with two RBI and two runs scored, while Adrian Gonzalez added a solo homer and scored twice for the NL West-champion Dodgers, who are locked into the third seed in the playoffs and will start the NLDS at either Atlanta or St. Louis.
The Dodgers pounded out 15 hits overall and did most of their damage against Colorado starter Collin McHugh (0-4), who gave up eight runs on nine hits over four frames to absorb the loss.
"I'm going to take this offseason and work on what I need to do to get better and what I do best, and hopefully come back and contribute another day," said McHugh.
LA pushed four two-out runs across in the first to create an early cushion, as Crawford stroked a one-out single and Gonzalez followed two batters later with a single to right.
With runners on the corners, Uribe cleared the bases with a double to center before crossing the plate on A.J. Ellis' single to left. Mark Ellis then capped the rally with a base hit to center to score A.J. Ellis for a 4-0 lead.
Gonzalez gave LA a 5-0 lead with a one-out blast to right in the third before Crawford clubbed a three-run shot in the fourth to extend the margin.
Kershaw singled with one out and Yasiel Puig walked before Crawford ripped a liner into the seats in right to make it 8-0.
After Uribe opened the fifth with a single, A.J. Ellis crushed a fastball deep into center field to push the lead to 10-0.
Mark Ellis added a run-scoring single in the sixth to make it 11-0.
Game Notes
Kershaw joined Sandy Koufax as the only LA pitchers to post a sub-2.00 ERA in a season ... Puig was removed in the sixth inning after fouling a ball off his foot in the fifth ... Crawford's homer was his first since May 6 ... Colorado has lost four of its last five games ... LA finished 5-for-15 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base ... Colorado committed three errors ... Gonzalez registered his 100th RBI of the season.
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