Dodgers 11, Rockies 4: Clayton Kershaw and all of the runs

Clayton Kershaw turned in another quality start tonight, making this the third-straight outing of his in which he has gone seven innings or more. Kershaw struck out seven and limited the Rockies to six baserunners, while allowing just a two-run homer by Nolan Arenado in the bottom of the fourth. That said, I honestly felt like this was one of his less stellar efforts, he just happened to be more fortunate today than it seems like he has been all season. The fastball command still wasn’t where it needs to be, but when contact was made, thankfully the Dodgers made the plays behind him.

Offensively, the Dodgers were set loose. They struck first in the top of the second courtesy of (what else?) solo homers by Andre Ethier and Jimmy Rollins, but the Dodgers really killed any tension in the game with a six-run sixth inning. Enrique Hernandez, Kershaw, and Howie Kendrick RBI singles gave Dodgers a comfortable lead, but it was Joc Pederson‘s three-run bomb to straightaway center off a lefty reliever that really blew the game open.

In the eighth, Kendrick tacked on to that lead with a three-run homer of his own to give the Dodgers offense a nice 11 runs, 18 hits, and five walks. And yeah, I can see how one would say “oh, but it’s the Rockies and Kyle Kendrick“, which is understandable until you realize the quality of pitcher they’ve been recently shutdown by (including Kendrick).

In relief of Kershaw with a big lead, David Huff, who was once a candidate to start the first game of the doubleheader tomorrow, pitched in relief and tried his best to make it a game, surrendering four hits and two runs in his inning. He was lucky to escape with just that much damage, as Joc played a Wilin Rosario hit off the wall cleanly and threw him out at second.

Mercifully, new apparent mop-up guy J.P. Howell had a clean 1-2-3 ninth inning and the Dodgers cruised to an 11-4 victory.

—–

-The glorious triumvirate of bad framing, bad umpiring, and bad command resulted in a pitch that is called for a ball 0% of the time being called a ball.

Call hurts #Dodgers
Ball 1 should be strike 1
Bot 7 Kershaw vs Ynoa
0% call same
9.1in from edge pic.twitter.com/bSvrSoR6iG

— Dodgers Strike Zone (@DodgersUmp) June 2, 2015

-The usage of Huff in relief and the pre-game denial by Don Mattingly that Zach Lee would be considered for the start, seems to imply that the starter will be Joe Wieland.

-Kershaw went 3-for-4 with a double in the game, which somehow makes his OPS almost 100 points higher than his battery-mate.