Clayton Kershaw paused midway up the dugout steps Saturday and bowed his head. The jog he was about to make to the mound at Dodger Stadium can be the primary steps of what’s doubtless the ultimate chapter of his spectacular profession.

A second of silent reflection was so as.

Kershaw threw his final pitch in August at Phoenix’s Chase Discipline; Corbin Carroll hit it over the right-field wall. Kershaw then walked off the mound and was placed on the injured checklist with a bone spur on his left massive toe.

The primary pitch of his newest comeback got here at 6:10 p.m. Saturday, a excessive fastball that Zach Neto took for a ball. The remainder of the inning went downhill from there, with Kershaw giving up three runs on three hits and two walks within the first inning.

He recovered properly, although, yielding two runs on two hits over the subsequent three innings whereas hanging out two within the first 4 innings of a wild sport the Angels received 11-9 behind a career-high 5 RBIs from catcher Logan O’Hoppe.

Kershaw’s return comes at a key time for the Dodgers (29-17), who’re lacking three starters — Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Roki Sasaki — to damage.

“I’m envisioning a shot in the arm of emotion, of intensity,” Dodger supervisor Dave Roberts mentioned of Kershaw’s return. “I do believe in a player like Clayton, his track record, raising the level of performance, intensity to a ballclub.”

A 3-time Cy Younger Award winner, Kershaw, 37, is the Dodgers’ all-time chief in strikeouts and is 30 shy of changing into the twentieth pitcher in big-league historical past to succeed in 3,000. His 212 profession wins is second in franchise historical past behind solely Don Sutton’s 233 and his 2.50 ERA ranks third. He additionally ranks third in begins (430).

However he’s spent nearly as a lot time on the injured checklist as he has within the Dodgers’ rotation during the last 5 seasons and the checklist of accidents consists of so many physique components, it reads like a web page out of “Gray’s Anatomy.” There’s the toe, which stored him off the opening day roster. Final season it was knee, toe and shoulder accidents. In 2023, it was his left shoulder. The 12 months earlier than that, his again and pelvis and earlier than that it was his forearm, elbow and again once more.

Dodgers beginning pitcher Clayton Kershaw wipes his face throughout the third inning of an 11-9 loss to the Angels on Saturday night time.

(Mark J. Terrill / Related Press)

Final season was clearly probably the most painful, although. Kershaw made seven begins and pitched simply 30 innings, each profession lows, and missed the World Sequence. Days after the crew’s victory parade, he underwent surgical procedure for torn meniscus in his left knee and one other on his left foot that left him on crutches and a strolling boot for 2 months.

“The superstar players that I have been around, there’s always something that fuels them and they need that,” Roberts mentioned. “Him not being a part of that last year, I know that that’s fueling him.”

With Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, Kershaw’s highschool teammate, wanting on, Kershaw struggled via a 38-pitch first inning, giving up a bases-loaded single to O’Hoppe and an RBI double to Matthew Lugo. However the Dodgers wanted simply 4 batters to match that with Andy Pages belting a three-run homer, his ninth of the season, to lifeless middle within the backside of the inning.

Taylor Ward put the Angels (19-25) again in entrance within the third, hitting his eleventh residence run. A stroll, a double and a sacrifice fly from Neto prolonged the lead within the fourth earlier than Kiké Hernández pulled a run again for the Dodgers with a lead-off homer, his seventh, within the backside of the fourth.

The Dodgers went in entrance for the primary time within the sixth, turning three walks, two hits, a stolen base, a wild pitch and a ground-ball double play into three runs and 7-5 lead that O’Hoppe erased together with his tenth homer, highlighting a five-run Angel seventh inning.

5 gamers — O’Hoppe, Luis Rengifo, Lugo, Nolan Schanuel and Kevin Newman — had two hits every for the Angels, who will attempt to sweep the three-game collection Sunday afternoon.

For the Dodgers, Freddie Freeman matched a season excessive with 4 hits and is batting .407 in Might, elevating his league-leading common to .375. Pages, Hernández and catcher Dalton Dashing every had two hits.

And so on.

Shohei Ohtani, who went hitless in six at-bats for the primary time this season, threw 50 pitches in his most in depth bullpen session since present process a second surgical procedure on his proper elbow in 2023. The up-and-down session, during which Ohtani simulated a break between innings, was his second in every week. … To make room for Kershaw on the 26-man roster the Dodgers optioned right-hander Ryan Loutos to the minors. To create area on the 40-man roster, the Dodgers moved Snell to the 60-day injured checklist.