The last time Clayton Kershaw pitched at Coors Field he surrendered back-to-back home runs for the first time in his career. Overall, Kershaw allowed four runs on eight hits in six innings and suffered the loss.
The outing certainly was not up to the standard the three-time Cy Young Award winner has set. Just like that April 8 start, Kershaw was back on the mound to face the Colorado Rockies in the hitter-friendly environment, with the Dodgers coming off a loss.
Kershaw was not only given ample run support, but Los Angeles provided their ace with an early lead by jumping on Tyler Chatwood for five runs in the second inning.
The Rockies scored one run in each the third and fourth innings. It was all Kershaw allowed on seven hits over seven innings. He acknowledged the start once again was not his best work, via SportsNet LA:
“A win in Colorado. It wasn’t pretty and nothing was great about it by any means. The guys got some runs early for me, and it wasn’t pretty, but I’ll take the win any day of the week. … There was a lot of bad stuff tonight, no doubt about it. Some stuff I got away with and there were some adjustments I did make towards the end.”
Kershaw induced three inning-ending double plays to keep the Rockies at bay. Two of which came off the bat of Nolan Arenado, while DJ LeMahieu lined into a double play in the fifth after a Charlie Blackmon one-out single.
Kershaw improved to 6-2 this season, with a 2.43 ERA and 0.95 WHIP. Even though the performance was not quite vintage Kershaw — his four strikeouts were a season-low — he collected a 20th career win against the Rockies. That’s most in MLB history, breaking a tie with Randy Johnson.
What’s more, Kershaw is now 89-0 during the regular season when provided with a minimum of four runs of support.
