Clayton Kershaw strikes out 12 as Dodgers win opener

ATLANTA -- Clayton Kershaw and the Los Angeles Dodgers opened the playoffs looking intent on ending that quarter-century drought since their last World Series championship.

The Atlanta Braves? It was another dose of October misery.

Kershaw struck out 12 in seven innings and Adrian Gonzalez hit a two-run homer as the Dodgers beat the Braves, 6-1, in Game 1 of their Division Series last night.

The big-money Dodgers haven't won a Series title since 1988 -- by far their longest dry spell since the franchise moved from Brooklyn to Southern California in 1958. Kershaw was born just a few months before that most recent title. If the lefthander keeps pitching the way he did against Atlanta, the Dodgers might have a chance to go all the way again. "He's the best pitcher in baseball," Gonzalez said, "and he showed it tonight."

Game 2 in the best-of-five series is tonight, with the Dodgers' Zack Greinke (15-4) facing the Braves' Mike Minor (13-9).

Kershaw, who had a 1.83 ERA in the regular season, held the Braves to three hits, including Chris Johnson's RBI single with two outs in the fourth. He struck out Andrelton Simmons to end the threat, then fanned the next five Braves hitters. Atlanta struck out 15 times in all.

"He turned it up the next three or four innings and we didn't really get good swings at him," Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. "But offensively I thought we had a good game plan, we followed it, we were patient."

Atlanta starter Kris Medlen allowed nine hits and five runs in four-plus innings. "I think I need to make better pitches," he said. "I think it was just one of those games where even when I felt like I made pitches, they still found places to put them. They're a great team, and when you have an opposing pitcher on the mound who is as good as Kershaw, I mean, there's not a lot of room for error -- and I had a lot of error tonight."