The Los Angeles Dodgers welcomed the last-place Arizona Diamondbacks to town this week and took care of business, winning by a score of 5-1 on Thursday night to complete a three-game series sweep.
The Dodgers gave Clayton Kershaw early run support, scoring a pair in the bottom of the first against Luke Weaver. Corey Seager and Max Muncy got it started with back-to-back singles.
Cody Bellinger then grounded out to first, although Christian Walker made an error trying to get a double play at second base, allowing the first run to come in and score. Chris Taylor then drove in the second run with a single to center field.
After the offense went quiet for a bit, they picked the scoring back up in the seventh. AJ Pollock hit for Joc Pederson to lead off the inning and didn’t stay up there long, crushing the first pitch he saw for a home run to center, his seventh of the season.
Later in the inning, Kiké Hernandez singled and then scored on a base hit by Mookie Betts. Hernandez then finished out the scoring in the eighth with an RBI single of his own to bring in Matt Beaty.
Kershaw reaches milestone in dominant outing
The real story of the game was the start Kershaw turned in as he earned his fifth win of the season, lowering his season ERA to 1.50 and WHIP to 0.72.
Kershaw carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning although it was broken up by Walker on a two-out infield single. That was the only blemish in Kershaw’s six shutout innings as he struck out eight and walked two.
One of those strikeouts was a milestone for his as he recorded the 2,500th of his career. He also passed Christy Mathewson for 38th on Major League Baseball’s all-time strikeout list in what was a memorable night for the future Hall of Famer.
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