Clayton Kershaw returns, Shohei Ohtani homers, Dodgers grab series win over Giants
Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw was hardly dominant in a 6-4 victory over the San Francisco Giants before a sun-baked crowd of 52,291 in Chavez Ravine on Thursday, his first game back from the November shoulder surgery that sidelined him for the first four months of the season.
In fact, the 36-year-old left-hander described a start in which he gave up two runs and six hits in four innings, striking out six and walking two, as just “OK.”
But it was more than OK for the Dodgers, who aren’t expecting the three-time National League Cy Young Award winner to regain his 2014 NL most-valuable-player form but need him to pitch well enough to shore up an injury-ravaged rotation as they push toward another division title.
“He’s probably not happy he gave up some runs, but I thought his stuff looked good,” catcher Austin Barnes said. “I thought he was able to move the ball around and keep hitters off-balance. His fastball had that jump on it, that life. He probably wasn’t happy with some of the fastball locations, but I think his whole mix was pretty good.”
Kershaw threw 72 pitches, 47 for strikes. His four-seam fastball averaged 90.6 mph and topped out at 91.8 mph. He used his 86.6-mph slider to finish four of his six strikeouts. He threw some good looping curves and even mixed in six changeups, a pitch he has struggled to command in the past. He induced 14 swinging strikes.
“I was looking at the stuff and the arm speed, the hand speed, and that’s something he maintained for all of his pitches,” Roberts said. “When he starts to lose that, the slider isn’t sharp, the curveball doesn’t get there, and there’s a loss of fastball velocity, but today, it held. For me, that was a big positive. It shows that he’s strong, he’s healthy.”
A 32-pitch third inning, in which Kershaw gave up two runs but struck out three straight batters with runners on first and second, prevented Kershaw from pitching the fifth, and six relievers — Joe Kelly, Daniel Hudson, Evan Phillips, Alex Vesia, Blake Treinen and Brent Honeywell — had to cover the final five innings.
But Kershaw gave the Dodgers a chance to win for the sixth time in seven games, which they did when Nick Ahmed, the veteran shortstop who was signed on Wednesday to replace the injured Miguel Rojas, and Shohei Ohtani hit back-to-back home runs off submarine-throwing right-hander Tyler Rogers to snap a 4-4 tie in the eighth.
On Thursday, Clayton Kershaw will return to the Chavez Ravine mound, set to make his season debut for a Dodgers team that missed him more than it could have ever imagined.
Ahmed, who was released by the Giants on July 10, drove a 2-and-2 sinker 396 feet to center field for his second homer of the season.
“That was big — we needed it,” Roberts said. “To have essentially a Gold Glove shortstop fall in our lap, and we lose [utility man] Chris Taylor [to a left-groin strain] the same night we acquire him, and for him to hit the go-ahead homer against his old team … I’m sure that felt good for him.”
Ohtani then hit a first-pitch slider that left his bat at 112.6 mph with a launch angle of 46 degrees, producing a towering drive that seemed to hang in the air forever, his 31st homer of the season traveling only 360 feet, tied for the fourth-shortest of his career.
“I was just hoping it would stay fair,” Roberts said. “He hit like a sand wedge at 46 degrees and it went 20 rows deep. Look up the last time somebody hit a ball that far with a 46-degree launch angle. It just doesn’t happen. Those usually go 260 feet. So again, he never ceases to amaze.”
Kiké Hernández paced a 14-hit Dodgers attack with an RBI single in the second inning, an RBI double in the fourth and a single in the fifth, Barnes had two hits, including an RBI single in the fourth, and Gavin Lux walked and scored in the second, doubled and scored in the fourth and singled in the fifth.
After taking the mound to his familiar entrance song — ”We are Young,” by Fun — Kershaw struck out Patrick Bailey with an 88-mph slider with two on to end the first inning.
He wobbled in the third, giving up a leadoff single to Jorge Soler, an RBI triple to Tyler Fitzgerald, an RBI single to Heliot Ramos and a single to Matt Chapman, the Giants taking a 2-1 lead. There were still two runners on with no outs, and the Giants were threatening to blow the game open, but Kershaw remained calm.
“He’s the same, honestly, from the start of the game to the end,” Barnes said, when asked if he saw the “old” Kershaw emerge in the jam. “I think that’s one of his better traits. He just doesn’t let off the gas. He’s the same guy. He keeps coming at you.”
Kershaw didn’t give in. He struck out Bailey with an 87-mph slider, David Villar looking at a 73-mph curve and Thairo Estrada with an 88-mph slider.
Clayton Kershaw’s kids drew artwork that sketchers used to create custom cleats to mark his return to the Dodgers mound following surgery.
“He’s pitched in so much stress throughout his career, he just defaults to having already been there,” Roberts said. “So it’s not about your first start back. It’s not about how you feel. It’s getting an out, getting out of that inning, minimizing damage. People who have been in those kinds of battles have that to fall back on.”
Kershaw struck out Mike Yastrzemski swinging at a 74-mph curve to open the fourth. He walked Soler with two outs but got Fitzgerald to fly to right field to end the inning.
An overpowering start it wasn’t, but it was in stark contrast to Kershaw’s last game here, when he retired one of eight batters in a six-run first inning in which he gave six hits, including three doubles and a three-run homer to Gabriel Moreno, in an 11-2 loss to Arizona in the first game of the NL Division Series last Oct. 7.
“There was some stuff I can get better at, but I felt overall, the breaking balls were good,” Kershaw said. “Fastball command left a little to be desired, but for the first time back, I’ll take it.”
That Kershaw’s wife, Ellen, and four kids, and Dr. Neal ElAttrache, the surgeon who repaired his shoulder last fall, were in attendance made the afternoon all the more special for Kershaw.
After making his third rehab start, Clayton Kershaw is feeling confident and is looking forward to making his season debut with the Dodgers soon.
“There’s a lot of people here and people back home [in Texas] that spent a lot of time with me to help me get back, so it’s really cool that a lot of people cared so much,” Kershaw said. “They spent all this time helping me get back, and they want to see me back out there so all the work isn’t for nothing.”
Kershaw, who made his major league debut as a 20-year-old in 2008, also became the first Dodgers pitcher to play in 17 different seasons, a milestone of longevity that came after a grueling, 8 ½-month rehabilitation process.
“I think there was a point before the surgery, after the surgery, where he felt, ‘Is he ever going to throw another major league pitch?’ “ Roberts said. “I think over the last few years, he’s finally realized that he’s mortal, so then there comes the appreciation of every moment.”
Pitching in
The Dodgers added depth to their rotation by signing right-hander Jordan Lyles, who spent most of this season on Kansas City’s restricted list while tending to a “personal matter,” to a minor league deal. Lyles, 33, will report to the team’s Arizona complex to build up endurance before reporting to a minor league affiliate.
Lyles struggled after signing a two-year, $17-million deal with the Royals in 2023, going 6-17 with a 6.28 ERA in 31 starts, but he was a solid back-end starter for the Baltimore Orioles in 2022, going 12-11 with a 4.42 ERA in 32 starts. He did not allow a run in five relief appearances for Kansas City this season.
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