The Los Angeles Dodgers have won three straight games after hitting six home runs to defeat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8-3, at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday night.
All those runs were in support of ace Clayton Kershaw, who turned in his second straight strong start as he continues to make his way back from a back strain.
He was scheduled to go around six innings and 90 pitches, although he only required 74 pitches before being removed due to the game essentially being out of reach.
Kershaw gave up four hits and two runs in those six innings, striking out two without allowing a walk. Only striking out two hitters is not something Dodger fans are used to with Kershaw, and it may be even more surprising considering both of those strikeouts were of the opposing pitcher, Ivan Nova.
The southpaw chalked it up to just making mistakes though as he still has some work to do to get back to his usual self, via Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group:
“I made some mistakes,” he said. “There’s probably some things to work on if I’m getting to two strikes and they’re putting the ball in play like that.”
While he did not punch out as many hitters as he had hoped, Kershaw was still very effective and efficient in his outing, earning his first win since April 15.
Additionally, he came out of the outing feeling healthy, which is the most important thing. This will likely be the last outing that he has limitations on barring any setbacks, so expect Kershaw to start going deeper into games for the Dodgers moving forward.
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