LOS ANGELES — Dave Roberts campaigned on his pitcher’s behalf before the game. His teammates endorsed his credentials in the clubhouse.
But on Saturday night, in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 4-2 win over the Chicago Cubs, the biggest boost to Clayton Kershaw’s All-Star Game candidacy came from what the 34-year-old left-hander did on the mound himself.
In 72/3 stellar innings, Kershaw gave up only two runs, one earned.
Dotting his fastball and dominating with his slider, he had twice as many strikeouts (10) as hits surrendered (five).
And in front of 45,198 at Dodger Stadium, he continued his dazzling, but abbreviated, 2022 campaign, lowering his ERA to a sparkling 2.40 after his longest start of the season.
Kershaw doesn’t have the workload of other All-Star contenders in the National League, having pitched only 632/3 innings this season after missing a month because of a back injury.
But on the eve of Major League Baseball’s full roster announcements for the Midsummer Classic, he made an emphatic claim for his ninth career All-Star selection — and perhaps a first-ever start in the event.
Hours before first pitch, Roberts was assertive when discussing Kershaw’s All-Star case.
He referenced the left-hander’s statistics, with Kershaw’s ERA now ranking fifth among NL pitchers with at least 60 innings.
“What he’s done with the time he has pitched, it’s been elite,” Roberts said. “It’s just hard to imagine an All-Star Game without Clayton Kershaw, given the fact that he’s also performed very well.”
Roberts noted the poetic potential of Kershaw starting the game atop the Dodger Stadium mound too.
“I’ve been reluctant to push as far as starting, but the game’s for the fans, and it’s just only fitting that Clayton would get that opportunity,” Roberts said, adding: “I’d be crazy not to think that Clayton should be named the starter.”
If Kershaw makes the team — something Roberts on Saturday sounded confident would happen — the starting decision will be up to Atlanta manager Brian Snitker, who will manage the NL team after the Braves won the pennant last year.
Roberts, who will be on Snitker’s coaching staff, said the two haven’t had conversations about the choice yet.
Still, “I know that Brian is a fan of the game and understands the fan bases,” Roberts said. “So it wouldn’t surprise me if Clayton is named a starter and started the game.”
On Saturday, Kershaw certainly looked worthy.
In the first inning, he struck out the side on 15 pitches. Through four innings, he had faced the minimum, erasing a lone second-inning single with a double play.
Kershaw had to do damage control in the fifth, giving up only one run on a sacrifice fly after the Cubs led off with a single and double.
He gave up an unearned run in the seventh, after Patrick Wisdom doubled, stole third and scored on a bad throw to the plate on a ground ball to shortstop Trea Turner, giving the Cubs (34-50) a 2-1 lead.
By the time Kershaw returned to the mound in the eighth, however, the Dodgers (55-29) had retaken the lead a half-inning before courtesy of a game-tying solo home run by Jake Lamb and a go-ahead two-run single from Freddie Freeman — one of several other Dodgers whom Roberts hopes earns an All-Star selection Sunday.
“If it happens, it happens, that’d be great,” said Freeman, one of the five other Dodgers players Roberts hopes will join the already-selected Mookie Betts and Turner in the All-Star Game.
“If not, just go and take four days off. It’s OK. You obviously want to play well, and if that all happens, it’s just an extra bonus of hanging out with some of the guys you don’t get to hang out with. But it’s not the end of the world.”
A Dodger Stadium All-Star Game without Kershaw, however, would leave a void.
Starter or not, his presence would add to the atmosphere of the first All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium in 42 years — just like it electrified the ballpark Saturday night.
As Kershaw left the mound at the end of his outing, lifted with two outs in the seventh after a season-high 102 pitches, an adoring Chavez Ravine crowd rose to its feet. With each step back toward the dugout, the cheers got louder. For several moments after he disappeared down the stairs, the standing ovation continued.
It was a deserved end to Kershaw’s best home outing of the season, the kind of performance that should help him be back for the Midsummer Classic in less than two weeks.
