The Los Angeles Dodgers’ series opener with the New York Mets at Citi Field was interrupted by a rain delay that cut Clayton Kershaw’s second start of the 2025 season short.
The left-hander pitched two hitless innings before the game was paused in the top of the third. The stoppage lasted for one hour and 38 minutes, which prevented Kershaw from returning to the mound.
The three-time Cy Young Award winner was disappointed that he couldn’t have a normal start because of the weather, via Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group:
“Obviously, I’d like to keep pitching. I tried to stay as loose as I could, but it just kept going longer,” Kershaw said. “In hindsight, they probably should have waited to start the game for a while. Tough to have our bullpen end up covering 11 innings.”
Starting pitchers typically get pulled after a lengthy rain delay due to the risk of injury from already having warmed up and then not throwing for an extended period.
Given that Kershaw only recently made his 2025 debut after recovering from offseason knee and foot surgeries, the Dodgers likely exercised even more caution with their decision to remove him.
Matt Sauer and Ben Casparius each followed Kershaw with three innings pitched after the game resumed. Tanner Scott was only able to record one out after blowing the save in the ninth inning, which required Alex Vesia, Lou Trivino, Anthony Banda and Luis García to make appearances as well.
In the end, the Dodgers pulled out a 7-5 win after receiving a go-ahead double from Teoscar Hernández and sacrifice fly by Andy Pages in the 13th inning.
Clayton Kershaw enjoys bounce-back effort
Although his outing was short, Kershaw’s performance against the Mets represented an improvement over his first start of the season against the Los Angeles Angels, when he allowed five runs over four innings of work.
He issued a leadoff walk on Friday night but otherwise wasn’t showing signs of the same command trouble that plagued him last week.
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