The Los Angeles Dodgers earned a win in their series opener against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday night at Chase Field, coming back to complete a 7-4 victory.
Ace Clayton Kershaw got the start on the mound, and while he didn’t turn in his best outing, he pitched well enough to earn his ninth win of the season.
Kershaw went six innings, allowing six hits and three runs while striking out six and walking one. Ketel Marte did all of the damage against him for the Diamondbacks, coming up with an RBI triple, RBI single and solo home run.
The quality start was Kershaw’s 15th straight dating back to July though, and he was happy to be to earn the win despite admittedly not pitching as well as he had hoped, as seen on SportsNet LA:
“I think some things weren’t great, obviously. Whenever you get a run in the first inning you never want to give it right back and same thing after [David Freese] hit that homer to tie it up, I gave a run right back. There’s some rules that you don’t ever want to break. But I was fortunate to get through that tonight.”
In 25 starts this season, Kershaw is now 9-5 to go along with a 2.53 ERA and 1.02 WHIP while striking out 151 and walking 29 in 156.1 innings.
The fact that Kershaw is still putting up those type of numbers despite his velocity decreasing after dealing with arm and back issues earlier in the season shows that he is still the elite starter that won three Cy Young Awards and an MVP.
With Kershaw, Walker Buehler, Rich Hill and Hyun-Jin Ryu all currently pitching at a high level, the Dodgers starting rotation is giving the team a chance to win on a nightly basis, which is all you can ask for out of a staff.
