Much like Alex Wood was doing to the San Diego Padres at Peoria Sports Complex, Clayton Kershaw was dominant early for the Los Angeles Dodgers in his start against the Seattle Mariners at Camelback Ranch on Friday night.
But the wheels eventually fell off for the left-handed ace, at least by Kershaw’s standards, come the middle of the game. Aside from allowing a one-out single in the first inning he otherwise struck out the side. Ariel Miranda walked Logan Forsythe to open the bottom of the first and later allowed a base hit to Yasmani Grandal, but stranded the runners on the corners to keep the game scoreless.
After Kershaw retired the Mariners in order in the second inning, Miranda struck out the side in the bottom half. Rayder Ascanio singled with one out in the third and it was followed by a Leonys Martin walk.
Forsythe got to a grounder up the middle for a backhanded stop and toss to Charlie Culberson for the start of an inning-ending double play to prevent the Mariners from potentially taking a lead.
After walking Kershaw and Forsythe to put two on with nobody out, Miranda allowed a single to Yasiel Puig that loaded the bases. Franklin Gutierrez’s two-run base hit gave the Dodgers the lead over his former club.
That was short-lived as Tyler O’Neill followed a leadoff walk in the fourth inning with a game-tying home run. The homer was the second Kershaw allowed in consecutive starts. Then in the fifth, Leonys Martin and Danny Valencia took Kershaw deep, giving the Mariners a 4-2 lead.
Puig singled and later stole second base in the bottom of the fifth, but was stranded by Grandal. Kershaw’s night came to a close after throwing 70 pitches over five innings of work. He allowed four runs on six hits, three of which were home runs, walked a pair and recorded eight strikeouts.
Kenley Jansen struck out two but was knocked around a bit in the sixth inning as he allowed a pair of singles and issued a walk that loaded the bases with two outs. Shea Spitzbarth inherited the jam and worked out of it without allowing a run by inducing Haniger into a groundout.
Trayce Thompson reached on an infield single with one out in the bottom of the sixth and promptly stole second base. However, Thompson was thrown out by O’Neill on his attempt to score on Darnell Sweeney’s base hit to left field. Culberson was then called out on strikes to end the inning.
Ross Stripling allowed a pair of singles in the seventh and was hurt by a fielding error that allowed the Mariners to extend their lead to 5-2. It finished as the lone run allowed by Stripling over three innings of work.
The Dodgers couldn’t mount a comeback over that span, and their 5-2 loss meant being swept in Friday night’s split-squad games.
