Clayton Kershaw took his seat in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ dugout at Coors Field after completing the seventh inning and didn’t get up. He wanted to. He wanted to take the mound again, to pitch into the eighth inning for the first time this season, but Dodgers manager Dave Roberts decided seven sterling innings so close to the postseason was enough.
So Kershaw’s ninth start of the strange 2020 season ended there, with the Dodgers leading en route to a 6-1- win over the Colorado Rockies, after another dominant outing. Jake McGee and Kenley Jansen secured the final six outs as the Dodgers won their fifth straight game. The magic number to clinch their eighth consecutive National League West division title is three.
Kershaw allowed one run on four hits. The left-hander compiled six strikeouts without walking a batter. He mowed through the Rockies (22-29) at Coors Field, where the Dodgers (38-15) have scored 30 runs the last three nights, efficiently with just 86 pitches.
He has a 2.15 earned-run average across 54 1/3 innings after starting the season on the injured list with a back injury. He’s now healthy. He’s toying with hitters with an elite slider, improved velocity on his fastball, and an evolved approach.
“I think, for me, just his willingness to sequence a little bit differently than he normally has,” Roberts said. “Obviously, the way that he takes care of himself is like no one else I’ve seen, but the numbers itself is more of a byproduct of all that he’s done.”
While the Dodgers’ resurgent ace shined again Saturday, the pitcher they’re counting on to be their ace of the future took another step toward his return from the injured list. Walker Buehler threw 90 pitches in a simulated game in Los Angeles. Roberts said the right-hander’s next game will be for real — against the Oakland Athletics on Thursday.
Buehler has gone on the injured list twice with a blister on his right hand since recording his best start of the season Aug. 21 against the Rockies. Buehler held Colorado to one run and had 11 strikeouts in six innings. But a blister surfaced and has plagued him since. He returned to throw 7 2/3 innings over two starts in the last month before going back on the injured list.
Thursday will be Buehler’s eighth start of the season and his only in-game preparation for the postseason. He is expected to start Game 2 of the wild-card round after Kershaw pitches Game 1.
Kershaw taking the mound for Game 1 will signify his return to undisputed ace of the Dodgers’ staff. He started the team’s first playoff game for five straight years, from 2013 to 2017, but was assigned the second game each of the last two seasons. He was still a top-tier starter — his 2.89 cumulative ERA was ninth in the majors — but he wasn’t the unquestioned No. 1.
It has looked different, but he’s regained that title this year. He isn’t overwhelming hitters with a fastball in the mid-90s as he did at his peak. But he’s taken the next step in this phase of his career, squeezing more from his left arm and implementing the strategic changes necessary to succeed. In 2020, that combination has produced another year of reliable dominance.
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(Castillo reported from Los Angeles.)
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