Clayton Kershaw turned in another strong start against the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Los Angeles Dodgers opened their homestand with a 5-2 win to clinch a top two record in the National League.
Kershaw began his night by retiring the first five batters faced but then faced some trouble upon allowing back-to-back singles. Kershaw retired Daulton Varsho to keep the game scoreless and proceeded to collective five consecutive strikeouts.
Arizona broke through in the fifth inning behind a leadoff double and single that put runners at the corners with one out. Kershaw nearly induced an inning-ending double play but Geraldo Perdomo was called safe and it upheld the Dodgers’ challenge, bringing in a run.
That was all Kershaw allowed as he got through six innings. He finished with 10 strikeouts against zero walks, marking a 27th career start of accomplishing that.
Kershaw was spotted an early lead thanks to Joey Gallo hitting a mammoth solo home run to the cutout in the right-center field pavilion in the second inning. Gallo later added an RBI single, which sparked the Dodgers to a four-run fourth inning.
It was punctuated with Chris Taylor getting just enough on his line drive for a three-run home run to left field. Taylor initially was credited with a two-run double, but the Dodgers successfully challenged the call to get him a 10th home run of the season.
Evan Phillips, Tommy Kahnle and Craig Kimbrel each threw one inning to finish out the win. Kimbrel needed to work out of a jam after a leadoff single was followed by two hit batters to load the bases with nobody out.
He was aided by Gavin Lux making a dazzling stop that wound up limiting the Diamondbacks to just one run in the inning.
Dodgers postseason begins with NLDS
Although the Dodgers won’t know their opponent until the Wild Card Series is played, they are guaranteed to begin the postseason by hosting Game 1 of the NL Division Series at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday, October. 11.
The current MLB standings have the Dodgers due to face the winner of the Atlanta Braves facing the San Diego Padres in a best-of-3 series. Though the Braves remain in contention with the New York Mets for a potential NL East title.
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