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.
“He stepped up and does what he seems to always do when his back is against the wall, or team — he steps up,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
With the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks both losing one-run games on Sunday, the Dodgers return home with a three-game lead over the Padres, four over the Diamondbacks.
“Once again, (it’s) Kershaw understanding the situation, where we’re at in the season and that we need this one,” Dodgers infielder Miguel Rojas said. “We needed him to be Clayton Kershaw.
“Understanding the situation and where we’re at in this road trip, knowing that he’s going to take the ball and he needs to attack the zone and go deep in the game. It’s everything that you can ask for, a guy like him. It seems like he’s going to be the horse of our rotation once again. We’re ready for it.”
That rotation has once again dissolved around Kershaw with Tyler Glasnow joining Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the Injured List, Walker Buehler and Bobby Miller unable to rediscover their past forms and Gavin Stone showing signs of second-half fatigue. This time, though, Kershaw has a healthy shoulder.
“Honestly, I don’t even remember what it felt like to not have your shoulder hurt. It’s nice,” Kershaw said Sunday. “You wake up and everything feels good, shoulder feels good. It’s a good feeling.”
That doesn’t mean Kershaw has completely rolled back his odometer. He was not overpowering against the Cardinals. He struck out only two and got just four swings-and-misses on his 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.
“They were swinging a lot, putting the ball on the ground so thankfully we got some big double plays,” Kershaw said. “We had basically four shortstops on the infield behind me (Rojas at third, Nick Ahmed at shortstop, Gavin Lux at second and Kike’ Hernandez at first base) and they were hitting them to them. That was a good recipe.”
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.
“People started to draw conclusions out there with two or three starts after a pretty bad injury, first time he gets surgery in his career,” Rojas said.
“We all understand that he came from a pretty bad injury last year. He was pitching through it. That guy we saw in the playoffs (last year), that wasn’t the Clayton Kershaw that we’re used to seeing. We know that after surgery, guys take their time to get back to full form. … It’s incredible to see him. He’s got like a 2.00 ERA already. He’s looking really good. Can’t wait for him to keep throwing the ball the way he is.”
Kershaw 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 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. 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.
“Shohei is taking good at-bats,” Roberts said. “When he’s controlling the strike zone, I don’t think there’s anyone better. Today and yesterday, he got some hanging breaking balls and hit line drives out of the ballpark. I think Shohei has kind of figured some things out.”
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.
“I’m hitting in some unfamiliar territories right now. I’ve never hit fifth in my career and I’ve never protected a cleanup hitter before,” Rojas said. “They pitched around Teo (in the third inning) and I knew they were going to pitch around him. You don’t want to face a guy who has almost 100 RBIs right there. He can hit a three-run homer right away. They went after me and I grounded out into a double play. I have to learn how to manage those at-bats because this is kind of the first time in my career that I’m hitting fifth.
“Second time around, I was a little bit better prepared because the first time gave me a lesson there.”
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).
Kopech’s 10 fastballs that inning averaged just 96.7 mph down 2 mph from his season average with no sign of Friday night’s personal-high 102.6 mph on one pitch.
“He’s gassed,” Roberts said. “So I’m going to give him a couple days to reset. But how he was used in Chicago, certainly different. There’s a lot more intensity here. … He’s healthy, he’s just gassed, but it was a big outing for us. Another good one.”
