Clayton Kershaw paused midway up the dugout steps Saturday and bowed his head. The jog he was about to make to the mound at Dodger Stadium could be the primary steps of what’s probably the ultimate chapter of his spectacular profession.
A second of silent reflection was so as.
“I don’t like the word emotional, but there’s definitely some thoughts. It’s just special,” Kershaw mentioned of his first outing of the season, an uneven four-inning stint within the Dodgers’ 11-9 loss to the Angels. “You get a little bit older, you just learn to appreciate that more. It was different.”
Kershaw threw his final pitch in August at Phoenix’s Chase Subject; Corbin Carroll hit it over the right-field wall. Kershaw then walked off the mound and was placed on the injured checklist with a bone spur on his left massive toe.
The primary pitch of his newest comeback got here at 6:10 p.m. Saturday, a excessive fastball that Zach Neto took for a ball. The remainder of the inning went downhill from there, with Kershaw giving up three runs on three hits and two walks within the first inning.
He recovered properly, although, permitting two runs and two hits over the subsequent three innings whereas placing out two over 4 innings in a wild recreation the Angels received behind a career-high 5 RBIs from catcher Logan O’Hoppe.
“I love getting back out there. It’s a special thing to get to go back and pitch at Dodger Stadium,” Kershaw mentioned. “Obviously, I wanted to pitch better. I need to pitch better going forward. But I think there’s some glimpses of some of my stuff being there, which is good. The problem tonight was just command.
“But, you know, first one back and just to be back out here at Dodger Stadium was special for me, regardless of the outcome.”
Kershaw’s return comes at a key time for the Dodgers (29-17), who’re lacking three starters — Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Roki Sasaki — to damage.
Dodgers beginning pitcher Clayton Kershaw wipes his face in the course of the third inning of an 11-9 loss to the Angels on Saturday night time.
(Mark J. Terrill / Related Press)
A 3-time Cy Younger Award winner, Kershaw, 37, is the Dodgers’ all-time chief in strikeouts and is 30 shy of turning into the twentieth pitcher in big-league historical past to succeed in 3,000. His 212 profession wins is second in franchise historical past behind solely Don Sutton’s 233 and his 2.50 ERA ranks third. He additionally ranks third in begins (430).
However he’s spent nearly as a lot time on the injured checklist as he has within the Dodgers’ rotation over the past 5 seasons and the checklist of accidents contains so many physique elements, it reads like a web page out of “Gray’s Anatomy”. There’s the toe, which saved him off the opening day roster. Final season it was knee, toe and shoulder accidents. In 2023, it was his left shoulder. The 12 months earlier than that, his again and pelvis and earlier than that it was his forearm, elbow and again once more.
Final season was clearly essentially the most painful, although. Kershaw made seven begins and pitched simply 30 innings, each profession lows, and missed the World Sequence. Days after the workforce’s victory parade, he underwent surgical procedure for a torn meniscus in his left knee and one other on his left foot that left him on crutches and in a strolling boot for 2 months.
“The superstar players that I have been around, there’s always something that fuels them and they need that,” Roberts mentioned. “Him not being a part of that last year, I know that that’s fueling him.”
Logan O’Hoppe hits a three-run dwelling run off Dodgers reliever Kirby Yates within the seventh inning Saturday.
(Mark J. Terrill / Related Press)
With Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, Kershaw’s highschool teammate, wanting on, Kershaw struggled by a 38-pitch first inning, giving up a bases-loaded single to O’Hoppe and an RBI double to Matthew Lugo. However the Dodgers wanted simply 4 batters to match that with Andy Pages belting a three-run homer, his ninth of the season, to useless heart within the backside of the inning.
After Kershaw retired the facet so as within the second, Taylor Ward put the Angels (19-25) again in entrance within the third, hitting his eleventh dwelling run. A stroll, a double and a sacrifice fly from Neto prolonged the lead within the fourth earlier than Kiké Hernández pulled a run again for the Dodgers with a lead-off homer, his seventh, within the backside of the fourth.
Kershaw was achieved by then, having thrown 83 pitches, almost half of them within the first inning.
“The stuff overall, I was impressed with,” Roberts mentioned. “The velocity was more than it’s been in quite some time. At times the slider was good. At times the curve ball was good. He mixed in a lot of change-ups, which was good.
“The command just wasn’t consistent. He got to a lot of two-strike counts and couldn’t put hitters away, where typically that’s his hallmark.”
The Dodgers went in entrance for the primary time within the sixth, turning three walks, two hits, a stolen base, a wild pitch and a ground-ball double play into three runs and 7-5 lead that O’Hoppe erased together with his tenth homer, highlighting a five-run Angel seventh inning.
5 gamers — O’Hoppe, Luis Rengifo, Lugo, Nolan Schanuel and Kevin Newman — had two hits every for the Angels, who will attempt to sweep the three-game collection Sunday afternoon.
For the Dodgers, Freddie Freeman matched a season excessive with 4 hits and is batting .407 in Could, elevating his league-leading common to .375. Pages, Hernández and catcher Dalton Speeding every had two hits.
Notes: Shohei Ohtani, who went hitless in six at-bats for the primary time since 2019, threw 50 pitches in his most in depth bullpen session since present process a second surgical procedure on his proper elbow in 2023. The up-and-down session, through which Ohtani simulated a break between innings, was his second in per week. … To make room for Kershaw on the 26-man roster the Dodgers optioned right-hander Ryan Loutos to the minors. To create house on the 40-man roster, the Dodgers moved Snell to the 60-day injured checklist.
