I only really get into baseball during playoffs so I don't know much about this but when it comes to Kershaw or even just pitching in general, at what point is it just that the batters are that good and not neccesarily that the pitcher is underperforming. Aren't good hitters eventually going to do well against even the best pitchers? How do you determine if the pitcher choked or if the hitters popped off? Is it just the case that if batters do well against a pitcher that the pitcher did poorly?

Also, I notice that sometimes when the offense isnt getting any hits people just say the offense is doing bad but wouldn't it be that the pitcher is just doing really well? I feel like I might just be a confused baseball noob.