Clayton Kershaw labored through his 200th career start at Dodger Stadium but the Los Angeles Dodgers picked him up in a 7-4 win to finish off a sweep of the San Francisco Giants.
The Dodgers now have a season-best eight-game winning streak and completed their first four-game sweep of the Giants since June 22-25, 1995, which also occurred at Dodger Stadium.
The Dodgers staked Kershaw an early lead thanks to Mookie Betts, Trea Turner and Freddie Freeman each hitting a single in the bottom of the first inning. Betts extended his hitting streak to five games in the process, Turner’s reached 11, and Freeman has now hit safely in 12 straight.
Although Kershaw managed to work out of a bases-loaded jam in the second inning to preserve the Dodgers’ 1-0 lead, he couldn’t escape more trouble in the third. Some of that was self-inflicted as Kershaw walked Darin Ruf with two outs and it was followed by a Yermín Mercedes double.
Thairo Estrada’s two-run single then provided San Francisco with a 2-1 lead.
The Dodgers immediately responded by scoring three runs on two-out hits by Gavin Lux, Max Muncy and Trayce Thompson in the bottom of the third inning. Up to that point the Dodgers had scored 20 of their 22 runs in the series with two outs.
As Kershaw was fighting a high pitch count, an efficient fourth inning kept him in the game. It wasn’t for long, however, as Ruf hit a game-tying, two-run homer with one out in the fourth. The 4.1 innings pitched represented Kershaw’s shortest start since returning from the injured list.
Dodgers offense rallies
The game remained tied until the seventh inning, when Freeman’s slicing fly ball to left field dropped for a double thanks in part to Mercedes not having the best range. That set off a string of hits as Jake Lamb followed with a go-ahead ground-rule double and Lux lined an RBI single into center field.
Thompson then sent his brother Klay into celebration by finding the gap for a run-scoring double with two outs.
Bullpen shines
Yency Almonte, Phil Bickford and Evan Phillips combined for 2.2 scoreless innings to keep the game tied until the Dodgers could take a decided lead. Alex Vesia then protected it in the eighth, and Craig Kimbrel converted his 17th save of the season.
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