The Los Angeles Dodgers were in a comforting, but all-too-familiar position on Tuesday night with Clayton Kershaw taking the mound for his ninth start of the season. Kershaw has more than answered the bell on multiple occasions, with six of his outings coming after a loss.
Such was the case in the second of a four-game Freeway Series. The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim jumped on Kenta Maeda early and withstood Trayce Thompson’s two home runs en route to a victory at Dodger Stadium on Monday night.
Anaheim took a 1-0 lead on Kershaw and the Dodgers in the second inning, stringing together a trio of base hits. The Dodgers tied the game in the third inning, and took a 3-1 lead in the fourth.
That was all the run support Kershaw needed, though he was spotted another run in the seventh inning, and Joc Pederson’s solo home run in the eighth gave Kenley Jansen a 5-1 lead to work with.
Kershaw held the Angels to the one run on four hits, collecting 11 strikeouts over eight innings:
Kershaw referred to the start as ‘average,’ an overly critical assessment of an outing in which he pushed his streak of consecutive games with at least 10 strikeouts to six starts — extending his Dodgers franchise record.
