A couple of days ago, we took a look at a few teams that caused some troubles for Clayton Kershaw. Well, only a few. This time, let’s look at some hitters who actually hit well against Kershaw.
To know which batters hit well against Kershaw, I decided to check on the statcast website.
Looking at the players who had at least 50 plate appearances, Dexter Fowler had a batting average of .392 against Kershaw. Fowler played in the majors from 2008 to 2021. He had 1000+ hits in his career. Fowler had 55 plate appearances against Kershaw, he collected 20 hits. Nonetheless, he was struck out by Kershaw 12 times and he didn’t crush any home runs against Kershaw.
In addition, Charlie Blackmon played in the majors from 2011 to 2024. He spent his entire career with the Rockies and he collected 1805 hits. Blackmon won the NL batting title in 2017 with a .331 BA. In his career, Blackmon had a .310 batting average against Kershaw. In 77 plate appearances, he had 22 hits and 4 of them were home runs. But Kershaw struck out Blackmon 14 times.
Moreover, Angel Pagan played in the majors from 2006 to 2016. In his career, he had 71 plate appearances against Kershaw. Pagan collected 20 hits and hit 1 home run against Kershaw. Nevertheless, he was struck out by Kershaw 15 times.
Furthermore, Nolan Arenado and DJ LeMahieu each have a batting average over .280 against Kershaw. Kershaw faced Arenado 79 times in his career. Against Kershaw, Arenado collected 22 hits and 5 of them were home runs. Kershaw threw 11 strikeouts against Arenado. Also, Kershaw faced LeMahieu 69 times in his career. LeMahieu had 18 hits against Kershaw and he was struck out 14 times.
Finally, Troy Tulowitzki had a .273 batting average against Kershaw in his career. Tulowitzki played in the majors from 2006 to 2019 and had 1300+ hits. He collected 18 hits against Kershaw in 72 plate appearances and 3 of those hits were home runs. However, Kershaw struck him out 17 times. And Nick Hundley collected 14 hits against Kershaw in his career. Hundley had a .250 batting average against Kershaw.
Looking back at Kershaw’s career, among players who faced him at least 50 times, only 2 players owned a batting average over .300 against him. It seems that Fowler did hit quite well against Kershaw with a batting average of .392. It’s worth noting that Fowler’s career batting average was .259 and he only finished a season with a batting average of .300. Perhaps, he truly saw the pitches well when facing Kershaw? But interestingly, Fowler never hit a home run against Kershaw. The other player who owned a batting average over .300 against is Charlie Blackmon. Blackmon used to win the batting title and his career batting average was .293. He was a great hitter, without a doubt. Well, Kershaw is an outstanding pitcher, but in baseball, some great pitchers might just have some problems against some batters.
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