It’s Greinke Vs. deGrom in Game 5

The dictionary tells us that an ace is, among other things, “a very skilled person.”

So when the New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers meet on Thursday night in the winner-take-all fifth game of their National League Divisional Series, there will be a matchup of very skilled persons on the mound.

Yep, aces. The Dodgers will send forth Zack Greinke, who beat the Mets 5-2 in Game 2. The Mets will counter with Jacob deGrom, who struck out 13 in the series opener to tie a club postseason record.

Very skilled persons indeed.

Greinke was 19-3 during the regular season, with a ridiculous ERA of 1.66. Over the last three regular seasons, he is 51-15.

The NL rookie of the year in 2014, deGrom was 14-8 this season with a 2.54 ERA. He allowed the Dodgers no runs in seven innings in Game 1. A fair matchup in a critical game?

“It’s probably dead even, to be honest,” said the Dodgers’ other ace (or very skilled person), Clayton Kershaw. “As good as Zack is, and has been the whole year, deGrom has been the same. So there’s really no home-field advantage when you’re facing a guy like deGrom. We saw that in Game 1. He’s just very impressive, you know, just very tough to square up. If you can get strikeouts on heaters like he can, it’s really tough.”

Kershaw shut down the Mets in Game 4, allowing three hits in seven innings and striking out eight. He should know.

How important is pitching? When the Kansas City Royals closed out the Houston Astros in their fifth game on Wednesday night in the ALDS, the Royals’ staff retired the final 22 Astros batters.

Aces, guys. Aces, all the way.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman .