Clayton Kershaw turned in his best start of the season on Monday night, and he was part of the Los Angeles Dodgers containing the Milwaukee Brewers again — even if momentarily — in the third game of their series at American Family Field.
With the Dodgers trailing 4-3 in the bottom of the fourth, the Brewers appeared to have two runners in scoring position after a ball landed on the chalk down the left-field line. Manager Dave Roberts went out to speak with Anthony Banda in what was a curios mound visit considering a pitching change could not be made.
In reality, Roberts’ visit was to instruct Banda to throw to second base in order to appeal. That paid off as Joey Ortiz was ruled out for not properly stepping on second base before continuing to third.
Roberts was made aware of the baserunning mistake by Kershaw watching from the dugout, according to David Vassegh of AM 570 L.A. Sports:
Clayton Kershaw was the one that spotted Joey Ortiz missed second base in Bot 4th inning-confirmation from 22 #Dodgers
— David Vassegh (@THEREAL_DV) August 15, 2024
Replay of the sequence showed Ortiz slide into second base and begin to retreat toward first. Once he realized it was a deke, he began running toward third base without re-touching second.
Kershaw’s awareness not only resulted in an out but helped the Dodgers escape the inning without giving up a run. They went on to tie it in the seventh inning on Miguel Rojas’ pinch-hit RBI single, but the Brewers scored what held as the game-winning run in the bottom half on a Mookie Betts’ error.
With that, the Dodgers’ five-game winning streak was snapped.
Clayton Kershaw’s focus
Although Kershaw is making headway toward 3,000 career strikeouts, he said after facing the Brewers that’s not a focus of his. Instead, Kershaw wants to get pitches in the zone to avoid walks and retire batters rather than chase strikeouts.
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