by Cary Osborne
A line like this was much more common when Clayton Kershaw was in his 20s.
At least six innings, no walks, no runs.
The 37-year-old with some gray among the forest of brown hair in his beard navigated safely past bumps early and late on Friday. In between, it was smooth.
Kershaw got out of a two-on, two-out situation in the sixth with a fly out to end his night with the line — 6 IP, 0 BB, 0 R.
After an up and down last month, Kershaw helped the Dodgers wave goodbye to July and start August with a 5–0 Dodger victory over the Rays in Tampa Bay.
Kershaw now has 27 games in his career with the 6–0–0 line. The last was April 29, 2023. He was under 30 years old for 19 of those starts. This is the first with fewer than four strikeouts in a game in his career.
The 20th member of the 3,000-strikeout club K’d three on Friday. One was a clever curveball to end the fourth inning in which the 18-year veteran dropped down and released from a 3/4 slot to strike out Josh Lowe swinging.
Kershaw recorded 13 of his 18 outs with breaking balls. He threw five pitches in the fifth inning — all four-seamers — to retire the side in order.
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Kershaw now has a 3.29 ERA on the season in 13 starts.
This was a bounceback, as he hadn’t made it out of the fifth inning in his previous two starts.
“It’s just better command overall today,” Kershaw said. “Slider was definitely better. Obviously last one in Boston wasn’t very good. So I was able to throw the slider a little bit more, curveball for strikes — which is nice. Will (Smith) did a good job and identified that they’re basically taking that early. So to be able to get ahead with that was nice. … Sometimes the difference in the game is just getting the outs when they matter.”
Twelve of the first 15 Rays batters took the first pitch.
The 35-year-old Dodger first baseman Freddie Freeman was responsible for most of the Dodger run production. The 16-year veteran doubled in two runs in the first inning. He hit a solo home run in the fifth inning.
Freeman’s homer was his 12th and marked the first time he has homered in consecutive games since May 5 and 6.
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He is batting .359/.431/.564/.996 over his last 10 games.
Youth also served in this game.
Third baseman Alex Freeland, in his second career game, went 2-for-4 with an RBI single in the fourth inning.
Justin Wrobleski, in his second Major League season, earned his second career save with three shutout innings. He now has a 2.12 ERA in eight long relief appearances this season.
The Dodgers tied a season high with 15 strikeouts. It’s the fourth time this season and the first time they’ve won.
Grizzled veterans and young bucks help Dodgers start August with a win was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.