EL SEGUNDO HERALD August 3, 2017 Page 5 SBA loans. Business credit lines. Cash management services. Commercial RE, construction and equipment loans. Ed Myska Senior Vice President 310.321.3285 emyska@grandpointbank.com 1960 E. Grand Avenue, Suite 1200 El Segundo, CA 90245 grandpointbank.com Five-Star Superior Rating by BauerFinancial Clayton Kershaw May Be Down, but Dodgers Not Out By Adam Serrao The Los Angeles Dodgers are off to the best regular season start by any team in Major League Baseball since the 2001 Seattle Mariners. That start presumably took a blow when the team’s ace and the best pitcher in all of baseball, Clayton Kershaw, left the game after two innings approximately two weeks ago with what was diagnosed to be a lower back strain. Kershaw’s absence from the starting rotation has become somewhat commonplace over the past couple of years. The future Hall of Famer missed two and a half months last season with a disc injury in the very same back that is troubling him currently. Despite the team’s best player being sidelined to injury, the Dodgers shouldn’t panic. There is already a certain amount of magic surrounding a ball club that finds it very difficult to lose a series to another team, let alone a game. The most disappointing thing about Kershaw’s injury isn’t what will inevitably be a longer recovery time than the left-hander would naturally want. The displeasing thing for Kershaw--and all of his fans alike--is what it does to his statistical season. Before Kershaw’s slight setback, he led baseball in wins (15), ERA (2.04) and innings pitched (141 1/3). He was also second in WHIP (0.88) and third in strikeouts (168). Without the injury, Kershaw was on pace to enjoy yet another Cy Young Award-winning season and had the opportunity to maneuver his way into accomplishing another pitching triple crown as well. Those goals haven’t been lost just yet, but his absence from the rotation will certainly make them harder to achieve. The severity of Kershaw’s injury was not immediately known and likely won’t be addressed by manager Dave Roberts. One thing that is for sure, though, is that Roberts and the team will certainly not rush their ace back into action. “Over the course of the next week we’ll see how he feels and how the body reacts to medication,” Roberts said a few days after the injury. “As everything takes, we’ll know more. Right now, he’s on a slow program.” That slow program originally projected Kershaw to be out from four to six weeks. Kershaw is known for his dislike of time frames, though, and had already begun playing catch again as early as last week. “A timetable has kind of been put out there, but we don’t know,” Roberts explained of the original projection. “With Clayton and his desire and medicine, anything can happen. We’re very reluctant to put any type of timetable on it. It’s unfair to Clayton as far as speculating and trying to project.” Fans of the “Boys in Blue” may be a bit nervous about the Kershaw news, but the optimistic part of his most recent injury lies in the fact that the scans revealed that the problem was simply a strain and not a recurrence of the disc issue that sidelined him for so long one season ago. More optimism arose last week, when despite not traveling with the team on their recent road trip, Kershaw threw three straight days of catch with no setbacks. Justin Turner put it perfectly when explaining how the entire team has learned from Kershaw’s injury last season and is now ready to move forward in his absence once again this year. “Knowing the way we responded and the way we played in his absence makes it a little bit easier pill to swallow, I guess, but you don’t want him not taking the ball every fifth day,” Turner explained. “But we’ve talked about the depth the front office has created and how guys step up. That’s what we expect to do.” Last season, the Dodgers stepped up in Kershaw’s absence by remarkably going 38-24 and in the process, overcame an eight-game deficit to the much hated San Francisco Giants in the standings to overtake first place in the NL West. When Kershaw returned to the team, he seemed well-rested, posting a 1.29 ERA in the month of September while also giving the team every last ounce of energy that he had--whether it was in a starting role or from out of the bullpen in October. Last year following the injury, Kershaw had the first impressive postseason of his entire career. The Dodgers have already responded once again this season, too. After Kershaw exited the game against the Atlanta Braves on July 23, Los Angeles went on to win eight games in a row dating back to last Sunday to finish out the month of July, before the month of August even had the chance to get itself started. Like the Dodgers have typically done all season long, there has been a new hero every single night. Whether it’s Justin Turner, Corey Seager, Cody Bellinger or even Logan Forsythe, the Dodgers have simply become a team that finds it very, very difficult to lose baseball games whether Kershaw is on the mound or not. As Orel Hershiser put it on a recent telecast, “There’s just no place [in the batting order] to breathe if you’re an opposing pitcher.” Ask the San Francisco Giants who looked like they were in position to win last Sunday’s game on two separate occasions. That was before the Dodgers came back from behind yet again and won on a two-run walkoff double by Kyle Farmer in the rookie’s MLB debut and first career at-bat. Almost every single player on the team has taken a turn being the hero. Last Sunday marked the team’s 31st come-from-behind victory of the season. It’s almost as if they encourage the opposition to take the lead so that they can come back and completely demoralize their opponents. That comeback win was the team’s 14th in the seventh inning or later. That same victory put the Dodgers 43 games over .500 for the first time since 1974 and put the club more games over .500 than the Giants (40-66 at the time) had won all season long. This Dodgers team that is slowly breaking the record books is obviously bigger than just one player. Kershaw, however, is the one player that everyone seems to be counting on come October. His absence from the starting rotation may not be ideal, but the ace of the club will undoubtedly be back, rested and ready to go sooner rather than later. Until then, it looked like this Dodgers team will continue being absolutely unbelievable and filled with magic without him. – Asixlion@earthlink.net Former El Segundo High School Athletes in the News By Gregg McMullin With the summer winding down, before school starts back up in a mere 26 days, there are a few former El Segundo High School athletes who are in the news. Allison Reaser, Ryan Pordes, Nigel Nootbaar and Lars Nootbaar continue to make our community, and in Allison’s case our country, proud with their continued successes. Allison Reaser was one of El Segundo High’s top athletes when she graduated in 2010 competing in several sports including track. After high school she decided to take on the heptathlon, which features the 100-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200, long jump, javelin and 800. She was the Junior Olympics National Heptathlon Champion in 2010 before going on to college. The best track and field athletes and moreover the world’s top athletes have been widely regarded as the decathlon (men) and heptathlon (women) participants competing in combined events over a short period of time. Reaser chose to attend San Diego State, following in the footsteps of her club coach Lori Smith-Thompson. She went on to shatter Smith-Thompson’s record at San Diego State and then broke the school record at the NCAA Championships with 5,773 points in 2012. She enjoyed a very successful collegiate career when she was a five-time All-American and the 2014 NCAA Division 1 Heptathlon runner-up in her senior year. Reaser competed for a spot on the U.S. Olympic team in 2012 and 2016 and has competed in events around the world. She trains at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista and recorded 5,830 points at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Sacramento recently. She ran a personal best in the 200-meter dash while doing well enough in the 100-meter hurdles, 800-meter, high jump, long jump, javelin and shot put to place sixth overall. Reaser’s efforts earned her a place on the National team that competed in the Thorpe Cup in Düsseldorf, Germany this past week. This will be Reaser’s third time representing the United States at the Thorpe Cup and she was hoping to break the 6,000 point barrier. Reaser helped her team and the United States win this year’s team title. On the first day, she amassed 3.356 points by taking second in the 100 high hurdles in 13.57 and winning the 200-meter in 23.96. On the second day, she won the 800-meter event in 2:13.49 and placed second overall with 5,782 points. If you’re not familiar with the Thorpe Cup, it began in 1993 with the two strongest nations in the decathlon meeting head-to-head--the heptathlon was added in 2006. The Thorpe Cup is an international track and field competition between USA and Germany. Teams are comprised of up to seven men and seven women who compete in the decathlon and heptathlon. Athletes receive a predetermined number of points based upon their performances in each of the events in the decathlon and heptathlon. The top five men’s and top three women’s scores are added together to determine the overall men’s and women’s team winners. Ryan Pordes Leads Suffolk Ryan Pordes, who was a former El Segundo Eagle standout pitcher, led his Suffolk College (Boston, Massachusetts) team to a 25-17 overall record and a conference championship. Pordes was 7-1 with one save and led the staff with three complete games. His 3.20 Ryan Pordes led his Suffolk Rams to an NCAA D3 regional final. See Eagles, page 14
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