The Los Angeles Dodgers extended their win streak to four games on Friday with a 10-0 victory over the Kansas City Royals. Clayton Kershaw was dominant in his sixth and final tuneup start of the spring, as he finished his Cactus League campaign with 21.1 scoreless innings.
After allowing a leadoff single to Jon Jay, Kershaw immediately took him off the base paths by inducing a ground ball double play to Humberto Arteaga. The three-time Cy Young Award winner got out of the inning unscathed by getting Paulo Orlando to ground out.
In his second inning on the mound, Kershaw continued to limit hard contact. He struck out Salvador Perez, then yielded groundouts to Lucas Duda and Alex Gordon to make quick work of the middle of the Royals lineup.
The third through sixth innings were much of the same, as the only runner that reached base was on an error by third baseman Logan Forsythe. Kershaw returned in the seventh inning and recorded two more outs. He finished the day with 6.2 shutout innings, allowing just one hit with four strikeouts.
The newly-signed Ricky Nolasco made his second Cactus League start with the Royals and ran into some early trouble as he gave up a first-inning home run to Yasiel Puig.
After tossing a scoreless second inning, Nolasco ran into some trouble in the third as he gave up a leadoff single to Chase Utley. Kiké Hernandez drove him in with an RBI-triple to extend the Dodgers’ lead to 2-0.
Nolasco then plunked Chris Taylor, who later took second after another wild pitch. With a pair of runners in scoring position, Seager cashed in with an RBI-single to push another run across the board.
Puig continued the hit parade with a run-scoring single, giving the Dodgers a 4-0 lead. Nolasco seemed to be turning a corner after getting Bellinger and Kemp to fly out for the first two outs of the inning.
But the 35-year-old failed to record the final out after walking Grandal and Forsythe to add another run to his line. He was supplanted in favor of Wily Peralta, who couldn’t get out of the inning cleanly.
Utley welcomed him into the game with an RBI-single to increase the Dodgers’ run total to six. Hernandez then added a two-run single to make it 8-0 before Taylor grounded out to mercifully end the inning.
Seager and D.J. Peters capped off the scoring for the Dodgers, as they each hit solo home runs in the fourth and ninth innings, respectively.
Forsythe worked a leadoff walk in the fifth, but he was removed from the game after fouling a ball off his foot earlier in the plate appearance. Luckily, after the game, Forsythe said that he was not injured though.
Ross Stripling relieved Kershaw and tossed 1.1 scoreless innings, and then Tony Cingrani pitched a scoreless ninth to complete the 10-0 shutout.
