Clayton Kershaw began a rehab assignment with Single-A Rancho Cucamonga last week, which represented his first time pitching in a game since Oct. 7, 2023, when he retired just one batter in the National League Division Series.
Kershaw threw 36 pitches (26 strikes) over three innings in his start for the Quakes on June 19. He allowed one run on two hits and collected five strikeouts while issuing just one walk.
After allowing a triple and sacrifice fly in the first inning, Kershaw finished his rehab start with two scoreless frames. “I think it was good,” he said after his outing.
“I checked off a lot of boxes, got through three innings. First time in a game setting and all those things. So it was fun to get back out there, I hadn’t done that in a while.
“So as long as everything comes out tomorrow fine, I think I’m on for the next one.”
The left-hander then experienced some left shoulder soreness in the days following the outing, including while throwing a light bullpen session over the weekend.
Kershaw was tentatively scheduled to make a rehab start for Triple-A Oklahoma City on Tuesday, but that was delayed as he is not completely healthy.
“Given the calendar, we just want to make sure that he’s good to go,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Kershaw.
“There’s no hard date for him. We’ve been very clear from the get-go, when he’s ready to go, when he’s ready to continue to progress, that’s when it is. I just don’t want to give him any hard timeline.”
Roberts previously noted that Kershaw was ahead of schedule in his recovery from offseason left shoulder surgery and appeared likely to return to the team sometime after the All-Star break. The initial timeline indicated Kershaw would not return until August.
The plan for Kershaw has been to continue adding one inning with each rehab outing and make a minimum of three starts before potentially joining the Dodgers rotation.
Dodgers optimistic following Clayton Kershaw MRI
While Kershaw has been shut down, Roberts noted the Dodgers don’t have much concern because an MRI didn’t reveal any new injury.
The setback is not ideal, but the MRI result not showing any structural damage is certainly a silver lining. The soreness could be a sign that Kershaw was perhaps pushing his rehab a little too fast, and this precautionary shutdown could just delay his comeback by only one or two weeks.
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