ST. LOUIS – How many times in his 17-year career has Clayton Kershaw done this?
The Dodgers are in disarray for one reason or another – a losing streak, a string of injuries, a starting rotation in tatters around him, whatever it is – and Kershaw takes the mound, puts his foot down and makes things right.
Even at 36 with a surgically-repaired shoulder, Kershaw still has it in him. In his fifth start since returning from that surgery, he completed six innings for the first time, holding the St. Louis Cardinals scoreless on four hits as the Dodgers won 2-1.
Kershaw was not overpowering. He struck out only two and got just four swings-and-misses on 70 pitches. But the contract made by the Cardinals hitters was routinely weak, producing 10 ground-ball outs.
Kershaw faced just 20 hitters in six innings (two over the minimum), getting double plays after two of the four hits, a fielder’s choice after another and a caught stealing.
Since struggling in his second start back (against the Padres in San Diego), Kershaw has allowed just two runs on 12 hits over 16 ⅓ innings in his next three starts.
He pitched most of the time Sunday in a 0-0 game as the Dodgers’ offense wasted scoring opportunities against Cardinals starter Sonny Gray in the first four innings.
They stranded Gavin Lux after a two-out walk in the first inning when Cardinals center fielder Victor Scott II crashed into the wall in order to run down Teoscar Hernandez’s drive. They stranded two more baserunners in the second then loaded the bases with one out in the third. Miguel Rojas bounced into an inning-ending double play.
Finally in the fifth inning, they broke through in familiar fashion – with a solo home run from Shohei Ohtani who continues to be in one of the stranger slumps. Ohtani has just 12 hits over his past 17 games. But seven of those hits have been home runs – Sunday’s a drive that left his bat at 113.5 mph after Gray left a first-pitch curveball over the heart of the plate.
Ohtani leads the National League with 39 home runs and is just one home run and three stolen bases short of the sixth 40-40 season in baseball history.
Gray walked Mookie Betts after Ohtani’s home run. Lux followed with a single, his third hit of the game, and Rojas drove Betts home with a two-out single to left field.
The Cardinals cut that 2-0 lead in half in the eighth inning when Lars Nootbaar hit a pinch-hit solo home run off Daniel Hudson. Hudson has given up eight runs in his past nine appearances, at least one in five of those games.
A throwing error with one out in the ninth put the tying run on base. But Michael Kopech got Nolan Arenado to bounce into a game-ending double play, earning Kopech his second save of the season (both this weekend).
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