This season has been one long farewell to arms for the Dodgers, who lost Tony Gonsolin to a left ankle sprain and Ryan Pepiot to a left oblique strain in March, Dustin May to a serious forearm injury and Julio Urías to a left hamstring strain in mid-May, and Noah Syndergaard and his unsightly 7.16 ERA to a blister in early June.
The one constant in this cluster of calamities, the only pitcher in the rotation to not miss a start through a haze of injuries and ineffectiveness, is the 35-year-old left-hander with a balky lower back and an elbow that gave out on him in 2021, causing him to miss three months of that season.
Clayton Kershaw took the Angel Stadium mound Tuesday night with the Dodgers reeling from a three-game weekend sweep at the hands of the San Francisco Giants, and the three-time National League Cy Young Award winner did what he has done so often this season, twirling a gem when his team needed it most.
Kershaw threw seven scoreless innings, giving up five hits, striking out five and walking two, and escaped a harrowing second-and-third, no-outs jam in the seventh to lead the Dodgers to a 2-0 victory before a sellout crowd of 44,703 in the opener of a two-game Freeway Series.
“Clayton has done it his entire career — he sniffs it out when he’s got to set the tone and kind of take the lead for his team,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “It seems like we’ve had this conversation a lot this year with Clayton, and he’s delivered. So tonight is no different.”
Angels left-hander Reid Detmers matched Kershaw with seven scoreless innings, giving up two hits, striking out eight and walking one, but the Dodgers bunched four hits for two runs off Angels reliever Chris Devenski (3-2) in the top of the eighth.
Miguel Rojas hit a one-out double to left field and scored on Michael Busch’s RBI single that took a wicked hop over the head of Angels first baseman Kevin Padlo for a 1-0 lead. Freddie Freeman singled to left-center with two outs, advancing Busch to third, and Will Smith hit an RBI single to left to make it 2-0.
Dodgers left-hander Caleb Ferguson retired the side in order in the bottom of the eighth, striking out Shohei Ohtani, baseball’s hottest hitter, swinging at a 97 mph fastball and Mike Trout looking at a 96 mph fastball. Evan Phillips threw a one-two-three ninth with two strikeouts for his eighth save.
“Clayton has done it his entire career — he sniffs it out when he’s got to set the tone and kind of take the lead for his team,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “It seems like we’ve had this conversation a lot this year with Clayton, and he’s delivered. So tonight is no different.”
Kershaw caught a huge break in the fourth when an apparent Angels run was nullified by a replay review that overturned a safe call at the plate, but he did not need any assistance to extricate himself out of a tight spot in the seventh.
Brandon Drury led off the inning with a single and took third on Hunter Renfroe’s double to right. Kershaw, with the infield in, got Padlo to ground out to shortstop, the runners holding, and struck out Chad Wallach with a full-count slider.
Luis Rengifo walked on a full-count pitch to load the bases, but No.9 hitter Andrew Velasquez, swinging at the first pitch, grounded out to short on Kershaw’s 103rd pitch to end the inning.
Seven of Kershaw’s wins this season, including four of his last five starts, have come after losses. Kershaw ended the Dodgers’ four-game losing streak with seven shutout innings in a 6-0 win at Cincinnati on June8.
“It’s redundant saying it’s a must-win, and he’s got to be the stopper,” Roberts said of Kershaw, who improved to 9-4 with a 2.72 ERA on the season. “But it seems like (that’s been the case for) 80% of his starts, as opposed to him continuing the momentum set by other guys in the rotation.”
Kershaw entered Tuesday night’s game with a 9-2 record and 2.13 ERA in 15 career starts against the Angels, throwing seven perfect innings in his last start in Anaheim, a 9-1 Dodgers victory last July 15.
He held the Angels hitless for 3 2/3 innings Tuesday night before Drury’s two-out single to left-center field in the fourth. Renfroe followed with a double that one-hopped the wall in left-center, and Angels third base coach Bill Haselman waved the heavylegged Drury home.
Dodgers center fielder James Outman fired to Rojas, whose relay throw home bounced toward the first base side of the plate. Smith, the Dodgers catcher, made a nice backhand scoop and lunged toward Drury, tagging the runner in the chest as Drury reached for the plate with his right hand.
Plate umpire Sean Barber ruled Drury safe, but after a replay review, the call was overturned, erasing a run off the board for the Angels and ending the inning.
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