It wasn’t a perfect game or a no-hitter, but it was 37-year-old Dodgers ace and future first-ballot Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw tossing 6.0 innings of five-hit shutout baseball in the Dodgers 5-0 win over the Tampa Bay Rays at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Florida on Friday evening.
All the Dallas, TX native and Dodgers first-round draft pick in 2006 out of Highland Park High School in Dallas did was strike out three and walk none of the 24 Rays batters he faced, doing so on 88 pitches of which 61 were strikes in front of a modest Tampa crowd of 10,046.
“Yeah, I think it was just better command overall today,” Kershaw told SportsNetLA’s Kirsten Watson postgame. “Slider was definitely better, you know. Obviously, the last one in Boston wasn’t very good. Able to throw the slider a little more, curveball for strikes, which was nice,” he added.
“There was a lot of strike-throwing and that’s his hallmark, and a lot of early contact, and I just felt that he was in a good rhythm,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said postgame of his 11-time All-Star left-hander.
(LA Dodgers)
As for those five Dodgers runs, the first two came on a first-inning one-out double to right by Dodgers nine-time All-Star first baseman Freddie Freeman.
With the win, the Dodgers maintained their 3.0-game lead over the NL West second-place San Diego Padres, who won their sixth straight on Friday. They also remain 9.0 games up on the third-place San Francisco Giants, who also won.
Play Ball!
* * * * * *