Clayton Kershaw took the mound for a ninth career Opening Day start and had arguably his worst performance in those outings as the Los Angeles Dodgers suffered an 8-5 loss to the Colorado Rockies.
The Dodgers were 7-1 in Kershaw’s Opening Day starts, with their lone loss coming to the San Francisco Giants in 2018. Kershaw personally entered 5-1 with a 1.05 ERA and 59 strikeouts across 51.2 innings pitched in those games.
He managed just two strikeouts over 5.2 innings and allowed six runs (five earned) on 10 hits over 5.2 innings at Coors Field on Thursday. The Rockies didn’t collect any extra-base hits off Kershaw and several times benefited from soft contact and finding holes.
However, he also induced just five swings and misses. “Wasn’t great,” Kershaw said of his performance.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts felt Kershaw’s patented slider didn’t have its customary depth, but he otherwise had an effective curveball and fastball and gave the team an opportunity to win the game.
“It was good enough to get ground balls, but I didn’t get the swing and miss with it,” Kershaw explained of his slider.
When asked if there was anything else on top of that he wasn’t pleased with, Kershaw answered, “Probably just the runs being scored.”
The 33-year-old did single in his first at-bat and finished the day 2-for-3 with a run scored. Kershaw ran the bases in the top of the sixth inning, then struggled in bit in the bottom half, prompting some belief the two were related.
“It can be (a factor), especially in Colorado. I felt fine, but it will take some getting used to,” he admitted. “I don’t think I’m going to be on the bases that much, but it will definitely take a little used to getting back out there.”
Kershaw, Roberts enjoyed fans returning to Coors Field
The Rockies had an announced attendance of 20,570, which was a sellout under current capacity guidelines for Coors Field.
“It was good to see fans out there, for sure. Missed that. It really did somewhat full even though it was limited capacity,” Kershaw said. “Obviously it was great to see that. Getting closer to normal, which is awesome.”
Roberts added: “I thought it was good. It was certainly nice playing around fans, albeit mostly Rockies fans. But I thought they did a nice job with the opening ceremony.”
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