by Cary Osborne
Giants runners stood on first and second base with two runs already in the bank in the third inning on Thursday at Dodger Stadium.
The heat was literally and figuratively on during a 91-degree afternoon.
Clayton Kershaw had been in these situations many times during his 17-year Major League career, and arguably the greatest pitcher of his generation is that because of his ability to pitch his way out of it consistently.
The difference here is that he hadn’t pitched in a Major League game all season and was 8 1/2 months away from shoulder surgery — the first surgery of his baseball career.
Kershaw, in that moment, showed the grit that the baseball world has been conditioned to expect from him.
He struck out Giants catcher Patrick Bailey swinging on a slider after falling behind 3–0. He dropped old Public Enemy №1 — a curveball — on a 2–2 count to strike out first baseman David Villar looking. Then he struck out second baseman Thairo Estrada swinging on a full-count slider.
“When guys get on base, you’ve just got to keep making pitches,” Kershaw said.
As simple as that sounds, it’s telling — that what has made Kershaw a Hall of Famer pitcher is his ability to microfocus. Not so simple, especially when the emotion of his comeback was felt from the moment he jogged to the mound to make his warmup pitches before the first inning. Wearing cleats designed by his kids, with his family watching from the family section at Dodger Stadium — and truly the baseball world on watch because of who he is and what this game meant — Kershaw made pitches.
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“He’s pitched in so much stress in those situations so many times throughout his career,” said manager Dave Roberts. “So I think that there’s some part of it that you just default to having already been there. And it’s not about your first start back. It’s not about how you feel. It’s about getting an out and getting out of that inning, minimizing damage. People that have been in those kinds of battles have that to fall back on, and I think that’s that was his only thought in that moment.”
Kershaw’s final line was four innings, six hits, two walks, two runs and six strikeouts over 72 pitches in the Dodgers’ 6–4 win on Thursday.
Not a spectacular line by any means. But considering a triple that took an unlucky bounce, a battle to get fastball command and maintaining velocity on that four-seamer while striking with the slider and curveball, it was a major positive.
Kershaw induced 36 swings and earned 14 swings-and-miss (38.9%). He had a better swing-and-miss percentage in three of his 24 starts last season.
He maxed at 91.8 mph on his four-seam fastball and averaged 90.6 mph. Kershaw averaged 90.7 mph with the pitch in 2023.
“Anytime you get swing and miss I think that’s a good thing,” Kershaw said. “Sometimes you need it more than others. With guys on base you need it. I think the slider and curveball were OK today. Fastball needed a little bit better command overall. But for the first one, I’ll take it.”
Kershaw also mixed in six changeups, which tied for the most he has thrown in a game this decade. His first swing-and-miss of the afternoon was on a changeup.
‘It’s a good pitch,” said catcher Austin Barnes. “Everybody knows what his repertoire is. When we put a little bit of a wrinkle in there you can put something else in the hitter’s mind.”
Barnes was part of the bottom-third of the Dodger lineup, which included Kiké Hernández and Nick Ahmed, that combined to go 7-for-12 with four RBI. №9 hitter Ahmed, the veteran shortstop released by the Giants on July 23, hit the go-ahead solo home run for the Dodgers in the eighth inning. Shohei Ohtani immediately followed with a solo home run to set the score at 6–4. It was his 31st homer of the year.
It was the Dodgers’ 104th game of the season. They are now 62–42 after a 6–1 homestand. This was the first game in which the two generational players — Kershaw and Ohtani — played together as teammates.
“That’s like a dream scenario, right? Roberts said. “You get two of the best players of our generation to finally play together. Shohei always talked about playing with Clayton. Clayton got to watch Shohei from the sidelines for five months. … Worked out great.”
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Kershaw was told before having surgery that if things went according to plan, he’d be back in eight months. He was told that if the shoulder was healthy, he could let it rip.
He did on Thursday in his return nearly eight months out from the procedure.
“At the end of the day, you’ve just got to perform,” he said. “It doesn’t matter — all the rehab you do, all the surgery, it doesn’t matter. So looking forward to my next start.”
Clayton Kershaw’s first start back reveals the grit is still very much in there was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.