Now in his 12th season, gone are the days where Clayton Kershaw must carry the Los Angeles Dodgers in each of his starts. He’s surrounded by a stellar rotation and supported by an offense that can provide run support with the best of them.
Kershaw has still demonstrated an ability to be dominant, evident by his seven shutout innings against the Philadelphia Phillies on June 1. Kershaw followed that up six days later by logging another seven frames, though allowed two runs in a tough-luck loss to the San Francisco Giants.
He earned a win Thursday night but it was not without some bumps along the way. Kyle Schwarber drove the first pitch of the game into the pavilion in center field to give the Chicago Cubs an early led. They pulled ahead 3-0 by the third inning.
In addition to Schwarber, Kershaw surrendered a solo homer to Kris Bryant. However, it was the walk to Bryant in the first inning that led to a second run that Kershaw was frustrated by, via SportsNet LA:
“Home runs are going to happen, I’ve said that before. The solo home runs, first pitch of the game, just trying to throw a strike, honestly. The Bryant one was a missed location. Six innings, two runs, that’s not great but you can live with that. It’s the walk to Bryant that led to that second run that’s frustrating for me. Thankfully, kept them at three and our team did a great job of fighting back and scoring a bunch of runs.”
Kershaw walked Willson Contreras with two outs in the third inning but followed it by retiring Albert Almora Jr. On the season he’s issued 12 walks in 72 innings pitched across 11 starts. Kershaw has at least one walk in eight of 11 outings.
Included in that was a string of five consecutive starts in May with exactly one walk; his season high is four, set against the Milwaukee Brewers.
While the 31-year-old may be more concerned by potentially beating himself via free passes, home runs have remained problematic. Kershaw surrendered a career-worst 23 homers in 2017 and followed that the next year with 17, his second-highest total.
Kershaw has already allowed 10 home runs this season, with at least one coming in seven starts. He nonetheless is 6-1 this year, with the Dodgers going 10-1 in his starts. Dating back to last season, they had won 17 straight games started by Kershaw.
