Mets playoffs: Clayton Kershaw will start Game 4 of the NLDS for Dodgers

The Dodgers announced that Clayton Kershaw will start Game 4 of the NLDS on Tuesday night regardless of whether the Dodgers win or lose tonight. Kershaw will be pitching on short rest, after having thrown 113 pitches over 6.2 innings in Game 1 this past Friday. Kershaw will start opposite Steven Matz, who is expected to make his postseason debut for the Mets, though it's still conceivable that Jacob deGrom could come back on short rest as well.

The three-time Cy Young-winning Kershaw was mostly excellent in his Game 1 start. Through six innings, he had already tallied 11 strikeouts. The only blemish came on a solo home run by Daniel Murphy in the fourth inning. Kershaw finally ran into trouble in the seventh inning when he walked Lucas Duda and Ruben Tejada. Jacob deGrom then moved the runners over with a sacrifice bunt, and a walk to Curtis Granderson loaded the bases and pushed Kershaw out of the game. Pedro Baez relieved him, and he promptly surrendered a two-run single to David Wright.

The alternative to Kershaw would likely have been Alex Wood, who had a 3.84 ERA in 189.2 innings this season.