ST. LOUIS — The Dodgers have despatched Clayton Kershaw to the mound to present a slumping staff a elevate numerous instances throughout his 18-year profession. They usually’ve not often been disenchanted.
So that they did it once more on a sultry Sunday afternoon in St. Louis and as soon as once more Kershaw delivered, incomes his first win of the season in a 7-3 victory over the Cardinals that snapped a two-game shedding streak and ended a slide that had seen the staff lose 5 of its final 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 supervisor Dave Roberts mentioned earlier than the sport. “So he understands. And he’s going to be prepared.”
Particularly after the Cardinals picked at an outdated wound simply earlier than the primary pitch, utilizing the huge scoreboard dealing with the Dodgers’ dugout to replay video of Kershaw bent over, arms on knees, after giving up a series-winning residence run to Matt Adams in Recreation 4 of the 2014 Nationwide League Division Sequence.
Kershaw answered that slight along with his finest outing of an injury-delayed season, permitting only a run on six hits in 5 innings. He struck out seven, essentially the most he’s had in precisely two years, leaving him simply 17 strikeouts shy of three,000 for his profession. And extra importantly, he didn’t challenge a stroll for the primary time in 5 begins.
That efficiency was particularly helpful coming a day after the Dodgers’ rotation was scrambled earlier than the staff’s large three-game collection with the Padres. Proper-hander Tony Gonsolin was moved again to the injured record Saturday with discomfort in his surgically repaired elbow, leaving the Dodgers with 14 pitchers on the IL and with no starter for Tuesday’s recreation in San Diego. A scan of Gonsolin’s elbow on Saturday confirmed no structural injury.
Michael Kopech, activated from the injured record Saturday, pitched a scoreless inning of aid within the ninth.
For Roberts essentially the most telling stat in Kershaw’s line was the shortage of walks since Kershaw has struggled along with his management in his first temporary comeback.
“What’s been consistent is the inconsistency of the command,” Roberts mentioned. “There’s certainly uncharacteristic walks in there, getting behind in counts, which is so uncharacteristic with Clayton.”
Kershaw hit 91.5 mph along with his fastball Sunday and averaged 89.6 mph.
“The velocity is something that he’s really mindful of and there might be a little bit of overthrow in there trying to chase a certain number versus just kind of commanding the baseball,” Roberts mentioned. “He wants both. He wants the velocity and feels he can command the ball.”
Kershaw additionally turned the primary Dodger pitcher within the collection to get some assist from his offense, which scored 4 instances within the first 4 innings and 7 instances within the recreation, essentially the most runs the staff has scored in a recreation this month.
The Dodgers, who stranded 21 baserunners whereas going one for 25 with runners in scoring place within the first two video games in St. Louis, wasted their first scoring alternative Sunday. After Shohei Ohtani led off with a double to left-center, the following three hitters didn’t get the ball out of the infield.
Mookie Betts runs the bases after hitting a solo residence run for the Dodgers within the seventh inning Sunday.
(Jeff Roberson / Related Press)
However they scored thrice within the second when three of the primary 4 batters, Max Muncy, Will Smith and former Cardinal Tommy Edman, all singled to heart forward of Hyesong Kim’s two-run triple to proper.
A leadoff triple by Smith adopted by a one-out double from Edman made it 4-0 within the fourth. And Kershaw, staked to the early lead, sailed into the fifth with a shutout earlier than two singles and a two-out double by Masyn Winn received the Cardinals on the board.
St. Louis added to that in opposition to reliever Lou Trivino within the sixth, with Willson Contreras doubling off the left-field wall, then scoring on Alec Burleson’s one-out fly ball to heart.
The groups traded runs within the seventh with Mookie Betts lining a two-out solo homer simply over the wall in left within the seventh and the Cardinals answering with a stroll and two-out singles by Brendan Donovan and Contreras.
The Dodgers then closed out the scoring with two runs in a sloppy eighth inning that featured a single, two walks, two batters hit by pitches, a handed ball and a sacrifice fly.
Now, the Dodgers transfer on to San Diego, which is only a recreation again within the NL West. Roberts, nonetheless, downplayed the significance of the primary collection of the season in opposition to the division rival.
“Outside of it just [being] a division opponent, and us trying to find a way to win a game, it really doesn’t have any extra impact,” he mentioned. “Right now we’re not playing our best baseball, but I think that that environment is going to bring out the best in us.
“It’s a fun place to play a ball game. But as far as kind of the stakes right now, I don’t think it really has a whole lot of extra.”
