ST. LOUIS – It seemed like old times.
Like they have so many times before, the Dodgers sent Clayton Kershaw to the mound, hoping he could turn things around for a struggling team and put an end to a losing streak (albeit just two games this time).
The standards have changed for Kershaw in his 16th season but he did give the Dodgers his best start since returning from offseason knee and foot surgery, holding the St. Louis Cardinals to one run in five innings as the Dodgers won 7-3 Sunday afternoon.
“I thought he was fantastic. Clearly his best outing yet,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “The command was much better. The slider got the swing-and-miss we talk about. He just didn’t seem like he was laboring from pitch one, trying to find something. The curveball was much better today.
“It was just kind of back to who he is – seven strikeouts, no walks.”
It was the 213th victory of Kershaw’s career — the first since August 2024 (also in St. Louis).
“I think every start, the results haven’t always been there, but there’s been a little bit of progress with each one,” Kershaw said. “This was another one where I felt my stuff was starting to trend up.”
Kershaw’s first four starts back this season produced a 5.17 ERA and enough doubts to lead to Kershaw defending himself after his most recent start when he allowed five runs in 4 ⅔ innings against the New York Mets.
“Physically, I feel great,” he said after that game. “I don’t feel old. My arm feels good. There’s not really any excuses. It’s just pitch better, pitch like you’re capable of. I think the stuff’s there. The stuff’s there to get people out.”
The biggest problem against the Met was an inability to finish off hitters when he got two strikes on them. He got two strikes on eight of the first 12 batters he faced against the Mets but struck out just one and gave up costly two-strike hits (including a two-run home run).
He turned back the clock Sunday, striking out seven in his five innings. It was his highest strikeout game since June 2023 when he had back-to-back nine strikeout games.
The seven strikeouts moved him past former teammate Zack Greinke and into 20th place all time with 2,983.
“Freddie is. Freddie keeps reminding me,” Kershaw said of tracking his progress towards 3,000 career strikeouts. But Freeman did not let Kershaw know he had passed his former rotation-mate.
“No. But that one is good. I needed to beat Zack. … Hopefully he finds out that I beat him and he texts me.”
Against the Cardinals, Kershaw got 12 swings-and-misses, nine on a slider that regained its bite and three on a curveball that was all but useless to him against the Mets.
“Some things I’d like to clean up but overall for the most part there were some better throws today,” Kershaw said. “Curveball was better, got some outs with that. Slider was okay today too. Command was better overall too. I think that was probably the biggest thing, I had better command which is good.”
The Dodgers rediscovered timely hitting long enough to stake him to a 3-0 lead in the second inning.
Shohei Ohtani led off the game with a double and was stranded there. Max Muncy and Will Smith started the second with back-to-back singles but Michael Conforto flew out to left field.
That left the Dodgers 1 for 29 with runners in scoring position since they landed in the land of toasted ravioli with a streak of 20 consecutive hitless at-bats in those situations.
Tommy Edman broke the drought with an RBI single through the middle, driving in Muncy, then Hyeseong Kim added a two-run triple.
“We knew it was going to happen eventually,” Edman said. “It was just one of those stretches where we didn’t get hits to fall. We knew they were going to fall eventually.
“I think we’ve got a group of guys that have been playing the game for so long that we don’t try to press when we’ve had a couple games (with poor results). We’ve just got a lot of professional hitters. We know the hits are going to fall eventually if we just stick with the process. We just stuck with it and came through today.”
Edman piled on against his former team with an RBI double in the fourth inning and Mookie Betts hit a solo home run in the seventh, keeping the Cardinals at arm’s length after they scored single runs in the fifth against Kershaw and sixth and seventh against the Dodgers’ bullpen.
The Dodgers put the game away with two runs in a grab-bag eighth inning that featured just one hit but two hit batters, a run-scoring passed ball and Edman’s third RBI of the day on a sacrifice fly.
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