Clayton Kershaw all but clinched the NL pitching Triple Crown with his 21st victory but Matt Kemp suffered a major setback in his attempt to become the majors' first Triple Crown winner in 44 seasons following the Los Angeles Dodgers' 6-2 win over the San Diego Padres on Sunday.
Kershaw's dominant performance helped bolster Dodgers' claims that the left-hander deserves the NL Cy Young Award.
Kershaw (21-5) carried a two-hitter into the eighth inning as he tied Arizona's Ian Kennedy for the NL lead in wins. He also leads the league in strikeouts (248) and ERA (2.28).
"Right now, I'm just done,” Kershaw said. "I'm already kind of mentally shutting it down. It's been an awesome year. I don't like to look at personal stuff too often. But right now, this is the time that I can start looking back a little bit. I had a lot of fun this year.”
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Kemp, who was just 3 for 13 in the three-game series, fell nine points behind Milwaukee's Ryan Braun in the batting race.
After starting the day six points back, Kemp went 1 for 5 as his average fell to .324. Braun was 2 for 3 and raised his average to .333, while New York's Jose Reyes was at .331 after a 2-for-4 game. Kemp is tied with Albert Pujols of St. Louis in home runs (37) and leads the league with 120 RBIs. He has three games left in Arizona starting on Monday to catch Braun.
"That's a big number to be behind with (three) games left,” Los Angeles manager Don Mattingly said. "You need one guy to kind of collapse and other guy to catch fire. He's going to need a 5-for-5 day.”
Neither Kershaw or Kennedy are scheduled to pitch in the final three games of the regular season. Those two pitchers along with Philadelphia's Roy Halladay are the three mentioned most often in the Cy Young discussion.
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