The Dodgers have sent Clayton Kershaw to the mound to give a slumping team a lift countless times during his 18-year career. And they’ve rarely been disappointed.
They did it again on a sultry Sunday afternoon in St. Louis and once again Kershaw delivered, earning his first win of the season in a 7-3 victory over the Cardinals that broke a two-game losing streak and ended a slide that had seen the Dodgers lose five of their last seven.
“He’s been a stopper for many years. He’s been a staff ace for many years. He’s going to the Hall of Fame,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said before the game. “So he understands. And he’s going to be prepared.”
Especially after the Cardinals picked at an old wound just before the first pitch, using the massive scoreboard facing the Dodgers’ dugout to replay video of an angry Kershaw, hands on knees and staring at the ground after giving up a series-winning home run to Matt Adams in Game 4 of the 2014 National League Division Series.
“It’s a little bush league, but I don’t expect anything less from these guys,” Kershaw said. “So it’s no worries. No problem.”
Maybe. But Kershaw pitched like he had something to prove, giving up just a run on six hits over five innings. He struck out seven, the most he’s had in a game in exactly two years, leaving him just 17 strikeouts shy of 3,000 for his career. And more importantly, he did not issue a walk for the first time in five starts.
It was his best performance of his injury-delayed season.
“The results haven’t always been there, but I feel like there’s been a little bit of progress in each [start],” he said. “Probably the biggest thing, I had a little bit better command.
“I felt like I had an idea where the ball was going. When it was going bad, I didn’t really know how to correct it. [Today] when I threw a bad one, I had some ideas on how to fix it with the next pitch. Pitching is just making the adjustment as quick as you can. It wasn’t perfect, but it’s getting better.”
Read more: Dodgers place starting pitcher Tony Gonsolin on the injured list
An effective Kershaw could help stabilize a Dodger rotation that has once again been scrambled ahead of the team’s three-game series with the Padres, which begins Monday. Right-hander Tony Gonsolin returned to the injured list Saturday with discomfort in his surgically repaired elbow, leaving the Dodgers with 14 pitchers on the IL and without a starter for Tuesday’s game in San Diego.
A scan of Gonsolin’s elbow on Saturday showed no structural damage, which was good news, as was Michael Kopech’s scoreless inning of relief in his first appearance of the season. Kopech was activated from the injured list when Gonsolin went down.
“He was fantastic. Clearly his best outing yet,” Roberts said of Kershaw. “I really didn’t feel like he was laboring trying to find something. He’s kind of back to who he is. It’s much needed.”
The left-hander hit 91.5 mph with his fastball Sunday and averaged 89.6 mph. He also had a good curve and a decent slider.
Mookie Betts runs the bases after hitting a solo home run for the Dodgers in the seventh inning Sunday. (Jeff Roberson / Associated Press)
“I felt like every once in a while I would reach back and had a little bit extra,” Kershaw said of his velocity. “It’s not going to be amazing or anything, but I think at times it’s getting a little bit of life on it, making making guys foul some pitches get jammed a little bit.”
Kershaw also became the first Dodger pitcher in the series to get some help from his offense, which scored four times in the first four innings and seven times in the game, the most runs the team has scored in a game this month.
The Dodgers, who stranded 21 baserunners while going one for 25 with runners in scoring position in the first two games in St. Louis, took their first lead of the series in the second inning when Max Muncy, Will Smith and former Cardinal Tommy Edman all singled to center ahead of Hyeseong Kim’s two-run triple to right.
They never looked back after that, with a leadoff triple by Smith and a one-out double from Edman making it 4-0 in the fourth. Mookie Betts lined a two-out drive just over the wall in left in the seventh for his first homer since May 19 before the Dodgers closed out the scoring with two runs in a sloppy eighth inning that featured a single, two walks, two batters hit by pitches, a passed ball and a sacrifice fly from Edman, who was playing his first series in St. Louis since being traded to Los Angeles in July.
Now the Dodgers move on to San Diego and their first series of the year with the Padres, who are just a game back in the NL West.
“We’re excited to play them,” said Edman, who had his first multi-hit game in June, driving in three runs. “It’s kind of weird that we’ve gotten to this point without playing them or the Giants. We’ve got a lot of lot of games against those guys coming up. So we’re excited to get at it.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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