Clayton Kershaw turned in a quality start but it was not enough for the Los Angeles Dodgers as they had a three-game winning streak snapped in a 2-0 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies. It marked the first time the Dodgers have been shut out since Sept. 14, 2019.
L.A. fell into an immediate deficit as Rhys Hoskins ended an 0-for-33 skid with a solo home run in the first inning. It was one of eight hits Kershaw allowed over six innings, but the Phillies only managed to push across two runs.
“They made me work. That’s probably the biggest takeaway. The at-bat quality for those guys was really good, so you have to give them a lot of credit. They made me grind, they got my pitch count up, fouled off a lot of pitches,” Kershaw said after the tough-luck loss.
“Overall, I thought I had decent stuff. My curveball wasn’t good, but I thought the fastball and slider were OK. They made me work and got my pitch count up. I was fortunate enough to get through a couple of those innings there. I felt like I had a leadoff hitter on basically every inning. A lot of things weren’t going my way, but fortunate to get through six.”
Kershaw was outdueled by Zack Wheeler, who also went six innings and held the Dodgers scoreless despite allowing five hits and issuing four walks.
“When you’re facing a guy like Wheeler, the runs are going to be hard to come by,” Kershaw said. “He’s throwing the ball really hard right now, so two was going to be too many, and that ended up being the case.”
Kershaw’s custom cleats
With Father’s Day approaching this weekend, Kershaw wore his usual Skechers cleats but a pair that had special designs courtesy of his three children.
“They were pretty proud of them,” Kershaw said. “It was cool to get to do that. I’ve never been able to wear customized cleats before, so that was pretty fun.”
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